F 129 



'r'rfr 



SIS. 







mii^mi IS 


1 



] I 









'liM^H^ 


■,.: .. 




^■J- 
J 


WSIM: ' 'i^^^l 


H 


Hl^g.. 'IHI 


|Hk^ ' 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. " 



iuXITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



AN 

ANALYSIS 



PRINCIPAL MINERAL FOUNTAINS 



SARATOGA SPRINGS, 

EMBRACING AN 

ACCOUNT OF THEIR HISTORY: THEIR CHEMICAL AND 

CURATIVE PROPERTIES; TOGETHER WITH GENERAL 

DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR USE; ALSO, SOME RE- 

MARKS UPON THE NATURAL HISTORY, AND 

OBJECTS OF GENERAL INTEREST IN THE 

COUNTY OF SARATOGA, 

BY K L. ALLEN, M. D. 



He sendeth the springs into the valleys, -which run among 
the hills."— Ps. civ. 10. 



NEW YORK : 

ROSS & TOUSEY, 121 NASSAU STREET. 

1858. 






INTRODUCTION. 

I have been repeatedly solicited to prepare a 
popular work on the mineral fountains of Saratoga 
Springs, and to point out the places of interest 
within the limits of the county of Saratoga. This 
I have endeavored to do, and the work is respect- 
fully submitted to the public by the 

AUTHOR. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S5S, by 

R. L. Allen, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District 

of New York. 



MuNSELL, Printer, Albant. 



CHAPTER I. 

Saratoga. — This is an Indian word of the Iro- 
quois language. And the inflections oga and aga, 
are local phrases and only mean place. And in 
the same sense the inflection aga, is used in the 
words On-ond-aga and Sac-and-aga.* But what 
meaning the Indians attached to the inflections 
Sar-at or Sor-agh in the word Sar-at-oga or Sar- 
agh-ogaf we have not been able to learn. We 
know of the locality to which they applied the 
word Saraghtoga, that it was a tract of land lying 
from forty to fifty miles north from Albany, on 
the west bank of the Hudson river. J 

There was doubtless a significancy in the name, 
for the region was held in high estimation by its 
immediate occupants, and its merits were not un- 
known to surrounding tribes, as its traditionary 
history, so far as it has been discovered, fully 
assures us. And as is also shown by the public 
proceedings which were liad in reference to it, 
during the early settlements of the county. 

This peculiar tract of country which was of so 
much importance to a people in a primitive state 
of society, lost none of its great value by being 
transferred to an enlightened nation. Wild forests 
spread over a varied landscape, consisting of table 
lands, which sloped gently towards the banks of 
the rivers; while mountain ridges raised their 

* Henry R. Schoolcraft's letter to the author. 

t lu some of the dialects the inflection "Soragh," meanssalt. 
If this is the meaning, Saraghtoga would mean the place of salt 
springs. 

X Documentary History of N. Y., vol. 1, p. 156. 



bold fronts in the distant back ground, and gave 
origin to the multijilied rivulets, creeks and 
streams which traverse in circuitous lines the 
whole face of the cnuntry, where many a mirrored 
lake lay sweetly reposing in the midst of the 
table lands, and as so many eyes in the face of 
the landscape imparted life and beauty to its 
features. 

Such a country as this could not but be well 
calculated to supply with food a race of men like 
the Indians of North America. 

The mountain ranges and table lands were 
well supplied with moose, deer, wolves, bears, 
foxes, rabbits and birds; the rivers also furnished 
a great variety of fish and water fowl ; and the 
productive soil gave them ample returns for all 
the seed committed to its bosom. With little care 
therefore, and only pleasurable exertion, were the 
Indians of this region furnished with food in an 
abundance and variet}^ not undesirable to civili- 
zed man of the present period. So also the pelts 
of the deer, the wolf, the fox, and the bear fur- 
nished ample protection for their persons, against 
the greatest severities of this climate. 

On the introduction of civilized man to these 
wilds, they were found to be no less adapted 
to his wants and necessities, than they had been 
to his savage predecessors. 'J'hey i'urnished him 
as much food as tfiey had previously done the 
Indian. And in ad(htion he made highways, by 
means of which he penetrated the interior of the 
country, and gathered up the rich furs and skins, 
which were so abundant throughout this wide 
domain. These rich products he bore away to 
the great marts of trade, in his little water craft; 
on his return trip loading his boat with all kinds 
of implenuiut^s and food, necessary for the white 



man, but which were not supplied in the interior. 
Thus all the appliances necessary for the develop- 
ment of the country soon found their way along 
the rivers far into the interior of the forest. And 
the waterfalls which had so long remained undis- 
turbed, rapidly became active agents in reducing 
this inunense country from its wilderness state to 
the habitation of a civilized people. 

And when the agriculturist first made his in- 
vestments in this new country, we find he selected 
the very sites which had been previously occupied 
by the aboriginal inhabitants. And the wild 
forest which supplied the Indian with objects of 
the chase, furnished the civilized man with the 
variety of lumber necessary to construct his 
houses, enclose his farms, and build his sliips. 
These facts remind us that the real wants of man 
in the different conditions of society, are to be sup- 
plied from the same source, and perhaps, after all, 
are not so very unlike as some persons may be 
willing to believe. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 

In the year 1687, the French in Canada had 
collected six or seven hundred Indian warriors 
about them, for the purpose of religious instruc- 
tions and to increase their military strength. It 
was as an inducement for these Indians to leave 
their new allies on the bank of the St. Lawrence, 
and possess themselves of the rich plains of 
Saratoga, and thus make themselves allies of Eng- 
land instead of France, that Gov. Dongan obtained 
and tendered to them this tract of land, at that 
time owned by a gentleman in Albany, to whom 



it had been secured by patent.* A result very 
desirable to the Englisli interest at that time. 

Settlements were made by the whites from 
time to time, along the banks of the rivers, and 
the shores of the lakes, lying between the bay of 
New York, and the rich bottom lands in the 
valley of the St. Lawrence. The English settle- 
ments were made as far up the river as I.ydius, 
now Fort Edward, in Washington county, where 
they constructed a fort, built saw mills, and manu- 
factured lumber of various kinds. They had also 
supplied themselves w^ith goods, provisions, and 
cattle, which were rarely to be obtained by the 
early setders in North America. This prosperity 
was to be of short duration. In 1744, information 
was conveyed by one of M. Picquet's detach- 
ments, that the English were pushing their settle- 
ments up to Lake St. Sacrament, and at the 
same time were making warlike preiiarations at 
" Sar:isto.'* f 

The French general on receiving this informa- 
tion, dispatched a body of troops under the com- 
mand of M. Marin, accompanied by Father Pic- 
quet. This detachment fell upon the settlement, 
burnt the fort at Lydius,and several saw mills with 
the timber attached; took the stock of sujiplies, 
and all the cattle which they found along fifteen 
leagues of settlement; and one hundred and forty- 
five prisoners, without having a single French 
soldier killed or wounded. t 

Sir William Johnson writes to the board of 
trade, that he is building a fort on Lake St. Sacra- 
ment, but which he will call Lake George, not 
only in honor of his majesty, but to establish the 

* Documentary History of N. Y. 

t Saratoga. 

i Documentary History of N. Y., vol. 1, p. 429. 



dominion of the king.* "I received," says Gov. 
Clinton, "an account on the 19rh inst. by express 
from Albany, that a party of French and their 
Indians had cnt off a settlement in this province, 
called Saraghtoga, about fifty miles from Albany, 
and that about twenty houses with a fort were 
burnt to ashes, thirty persons were killed and 
scal[)ed, and about sixty were taken prisoners."! 

This campaign prevented further efforts at 
settlements until after the conclusion of peace 
between the French and English, in 1748. 

Patents were granted at an early day by the 
sovereign of Great Britain ; one of the earliest 
grants of this kind was the Van Schaick patent. 
This grant included the present town of Water- 
ford. The Saratoga patent was the next in order 
of time, and contained a tract of land six miles 
square, and lying on the banks of the Hudson 
river, north of Van Schaick's patent. The Apple 
patent was granted to William Apple, and lay 
along the Mohawk river, extending "three miles 
back into the woods." But the most important 
grant which was made in this section of country 
was the Kayaderosseras patent. This patent was 
granted to thirteen individuals, and embraced a 
large proportion of the tract now lying within the 
limits of Saratoga county. 

On the the 26lli day of August, 1702, a grant of 
land was executed by two Indians named " Te- 
yon-nin-ho-ge and De-ron-oeh-rak-has, Maquas 
Indians, owners, and native proprietors of the 
land," to David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, 
junior, citizens of the city of Albany. 

Samson Shelton Broughton, Esq., bought for 
himself and company, a license to purchase the 

* London Documents, xxxiii, p. 17S. 

t London Documents, xxvii, pp. 87, 235, 30th Nov. 1754. 



8 

tract of vacant and unappropriated land in the 
county of Albany, called Kayaderosseras, " adjoin- 
ing to the north bounds of Schenectady, on the 
east side thereof to the west bounds of Saratoga 
on the north side thereof, and to Albany river on 
the west side thereof, of the native Indians and 
proprietors thereof, for their cultivation and im- 
provement." " April 22d, 1703." 

On the sixth day of October, 1704, in j)ursu- 
ance of the above mentioned license, a piuxhase 
was effected by Samson Sheiton Broughton, Esq., 
Attorney-General of the Province, Peter Fau- 
connier, Esq., late Commissioner of the Customs, 
and Nanning Hermanse Visher. of the city of 
Albany, mariners, for themselves and the com- 
]» uiy, of the Indians Josej)!] Hendrick, Cornelius, 
Gideon and Ames, native Maquas Indians and 
Sachems, in behalf of themselves and all their 
nation, for and in consideration of the sum of 
sixty pound ($150), current money of the Pro- 
vince of New York, and of sundry goods to them 
in hand paid." 

In the year 1683, the county of Albany was 
organized. At this date, Albany embraced all 
the territory of New York, lying north of Ulster 
county on the west, and Dutchess on the east 
side of the Hudson river. During the continu- 
ance of this jurisdiction four townships were 
organized north of the Mohawk, and west of the 
Hudson river, viz: Halfmoon, Stillwater, Saratoga 
and Ballston. Eighty-three years after the 
organization of the county of Albany, there were 
but ten counties in the State of New York, viz; 
New York, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, 
Ulster, Albany, Richmond, Kings, Queens and 
Suffolk. 

In the year 1791, or one hundred and eiijht 



9 

years after the organization of the county of 
Albany, the county of ^aratoira was taken from 
tliat part of Albany county lying north of the 
Mohawk, and west of the Hudson rivers. Its 
greatest length from north to south is forty miles, 
and its greatest width from east to west is twenty- 
eight miles. It lies between 42° 46' and 43° 23' 
north latitude, and 3° 21' and 2° 47' east loni^n- 
tude from Washington, and contains eight hundred 
square miles. It is bounded on the north by the 
Hudson river and the county of Warren ; on the 
west by the counties of Franklin, Montgomery 
and Schenectady; on the south by Schenectady 
county and the Mohawk rivei', which separates it 
from the county of Albany, and on the east by 
the Hudson river, which separates it from the 
counties of Rensselaer and Washington. 

This county is now divided into twenty town- 
ships. The names of each, and the date of their 
respective organizations are as follows, to wit: 
Ballston, organized in the year 1788. The first 
settlement was made in this town in 1763, by two 
brothers of the name of McDonald. The town 
derives its name from the Rev. Eliphalet Ball, 
who with a number of his congregation, from 
Bedford, Westchester county, settled about two 
and a half miles south of the springs. Ballston 
Center, East Line and Burnt Hills have post-ofRces. 

Halfmoon, lying on the Hudson, was organized 
in 1788. Middletovvn, Halfmoon and Mechanics- 
ville are small villages. 

Saratog-a and Stillwater were organized also in 
1788. Saratoga has a river margin on the east, 
the beautiful Lake of Saratoga on the west, and 
the winding stream of Fish creek coursing its 
way from the shores of the lake to the banks of 
the Hudson, at Schuylerville; these, with its 



10 

undulating surface and productive soil make it 
one of the most interesting townships in Saratoga 
county. Schuylerville and Victory are its villages. 
Schuylerville was the residence of Gen'l Schuyler, 
whose mansion and surrounding huildin^s were 
destroyed under Gen'l Burgoyne, in 1777. The 
place where Gen'l Burgoyne surrendered his 
sword to Gen'l Gates is said to be a short distance 
north of the site of the old Schuyler mansion, 
on which is the dwelhng house now occupied by 
George Strover, Esq. Stillwater is also on the 
west bank of the Hudson river and south of 
Saratoga. The village of Mechanicsville, is 
situated partly in this town and partly in Halfmoon. 
About four miles above Mechanicsville and on the 
Champlain canal, is Stillwater village. In this 
town are Bemis Heights, the scene of the 
euijagement between Burgoyne and Gen'l Gates, 
in 1777, so famous in Revolutionary annals, and 
on which hung results so important in their 
bearing upon the great struggle between Great 
Britain and her colonies. Mr. J. Walker's house 
is two and a half miles from Patterson's tavern, 
and two miles from the Hudson river. A few 
rods south of this house is the "meadow" on 
which Gen'l Frazer fell, mortally wounded. It 
is a little west of the road which now runs north 
and south directly past the place. Near the spot 
where Frazer fell, is the common grave of forty 
soldiers, whose bodies were committed to their 
final resting place after the engajiement. But 
about sixty rods in a southwest direction was 
the scene of the main action, which occurred on 
the 7th of October. 1777. 

]n the year 1792, Cliarlton, Galway and Milton 
were taken from Ballston and organized as 
townships in Saratoga county. Charlton has a 



11 

village of the same name, and a post-office by the 
name of West Charlton. Galvvay has Galway 
Corners and West Galway for its villages; and in 
Milton are Rock City, Factory Village and 
Ballston Spa. The latter is the county seat of 
Saratoga county. It was incorporated in 1807. 
The village is situated thirty miles north from 
Albany, twenty-four from Troy, fifteen from Sche- 
nectady and seven southwest from Saratoga 
Springs. The village of Ballston is situated in a 
valley and is built on either side of the small stream 
which is a branch of the Kayaderosseras creek. 
Within the limits of the village are the Mineral 
fountains, some of which at one time had a high 
reputation for their medicinal qualities; and large 
numbers of strangers annually resorted to them for 
their healing virtues. But from the nature of one 
of the substrata which underlie the village and 
through which its mineral water percolates, it 
has been found difficult to secure it at all times in 
its best forms, and consequently the springs of 
this pleasant village, which in times past, were 
so justly celebrated, have ceased to housed either 
at the fountains, or for bottling. It is well supplied 
with churches and hotels; and the fact that it 
contains the public buildings of the county, adds 
not a little interest to the village. 

The mineral fountains in this village were dis- 
covered in the year 1772, at which time, a gen- 
tleman by the name of Douglass built a log house 
for the accommodation of strangers who resorted 
hither for the benefit of the mineral water. 

During the Revolutionary war the farther devel- 
opments of the town were suspended ; but about 
the year 1790, Mr. Douglass enlarged his former 
accommodations for the increased number of 
strangers. 



J2 

In the year 1804, Nicholas Law erected the 
present Sans Souci hotel; it is huilt of wood, is 
three stories high ; main building 160 feet long and 
wings 150 feet. 

Greenfield was taken from Saratoga and Milton 
in 1793; West Greenfield, Greenfield Center, and 
Porter's Corners are small settlements. 

Providence was organized in 1796. It was taken 
from the town of Gal way. Hagedorn's Mills, 
Greensboro and Johnsboro are its settlements. 

Northumberland is situated on the banks of the 
Hudson river. It was taken from Saratoga in 
1798. Gansevoortville and Pope's Corners are its 
largest settlements. 

Edinburgh and Hadley were organized in 1801. 
The former was taken from Providence, and has 
a small village on the Sacandaga river. The 
latter was taken from Greenfield and Northum- 
berland, and in it, is the village of Hadley. 

In 1802 Malta was taken from Stillwater. 
Maltaville and Dunning street have post-offices in 
this town. 

Moreau is a pleasant and flourishing township 
lying on the banks of the Hudson river. This 
stream bounds the town on the northeast and on 
the northwest. It was taken from the town of 
Northumberland in the year 1805. Its principal 
settlements are Moreau, Reynolds' Corners and 
Clarkesville. 

Waterford was organized in 1816. It is plea- 
santly situated at the confluence of the Mohawk 
with the Hudson nver. Waterford is a pleasant 
village, and for many years was the business 
village of the county; but canals and railroads 
have diminished its importance, and its trade is 
now inconsiderable. 



13 

III 1818, Corinth and Wilton were org:anized. 
The former was taken from Hadley; Corinth, 
formerly called Jessu->'s Landing, is a small 
village, and South Corinth has a post-office; the 
latter was taken from Northumberland. Fortsville 
and Wihon are small settlements. 

Day and Saratoga Springs were organized in 
1819. The former was taken from Edinburgh 
and Hadley, and occupies the northeast part of 
the county. Day and West Day are the names 
of its post-offices. 

Saratoga Springs in the center of the county, is 
second to ro inland village in the state. Its 
hotels are spacious and elegant, and its churches 
are large, commodious and elaborate in finish. 
Many of the private residences are very hand- 
some, and the number is annually increasing in 
and about the village, of such as belong to gen- 
tlemen who have retired upon their fortunes; but 
the mineral fountains are the great attraction of 
the village. They are numerous, but few of them 
have been sufficiently secured to render the water 
suitable for bottling and exportation. This village 
is one hundred atid eighty-one miles from New 
York city, and thirty-six and a half from Albany. 
It is beautifully situated three hundred feet above 
tide water. The Kayaderosseras Mountain, two 
thousand feet above the level of the sea, raises its 
summit within ten or twelve miles of the village, 
on the west and north; while the Green Moun- 
tains stretch along the eastern horizon at a 
distance of about twenty miles; the high ranges 
of the Catskill skirt the extreme south. The sur- 
rounding country, is well watered, the atmosphere 
is dry and highly electrified, the climate entirely 
unlike that of Boston, New York, and the whole 
2 



14 

seaboard, as those well know, who have been 
exposed to a sixty days' east wind on our north- 
eastern coasts. The village is very accessible by 
means of railroads. Its mineral water is sui- 
generis. It is an article of commerce, and the 
civilized world are customers ; and many thousand 
persons annually bear testimony to its happy 
medicinal effects when drank at the fountains. 

Clifton Park was the last town organized in the 
county. It was taken from Ualfmoon in 1828. 
Willow Springs, Rexford's Flats, Clifton Park, 
Vischer's Ferry and Jonesville are post-ofRces in 
this town. 



CHAPTER II. 



Sir William Johnson was the first white man 
who visited these springs, and the first civilized 
person who applied them as a remedial agent. 
It is true that Michael McDonald, a Scotchman, 
who had previously settled at Ballston Lake, was 
one of Johnson's ])ariy, and must have been at 
the High Rock at the same time with the baronet 
and his Indian guides; but we have no information 
of his having previously visited them, although 
he had settled so near them. And his visit at 
this time, was at the instance of Johnson, who 
with his party had staid the previous night at 
McDonald's house. Johnson's visit was caused 
by an indisposition, which so far disabled him that 
he was unfit to travel over the rude passes which 
then lay between this and Johnstown. And we 
are informed that the Indians bore him in a litter 
from Johnstown in Montgomery county, along 
the banks of the Mohawk to Schenectady, and 
then by Ballston Lake to this place, at that time 



15 

a wilderness. Here he stayed some time, and 
used the water, and so tar recovered his health that 
he returned to Johnstown, by the way of Schen- 
ectady on foot. His cure was attributed by him 
and Ills friends, to the water which he drank from 
the High Rock spring. Ije being a public man, 
his cure induced other white people from the 
adjacent settlements to visit th^ spring, and for 
themselves to try its virtue. And the sick and 
the curious could be very often seen winding 
their solitary way toward this health-giving foun- 
tain, along the trails which led from settlements 
in old Saratoga, in the vicinity of Snake Hill, and 
back into the wild forest of Palmertovvn, now the 
town of Wilton. 

So important had these fountains became in 
1773, that one Dirick Scowton was induced to 
remove to them, clear away a piece of ground on 
the top of the hill in the rear of the High Rock 
spring, and build a log cabin. But before he had 
completed his rude tenement he is said to have had 
a misunderstanding with the Indians who were 
living about the springs, and found it for his 
interest and personal safety to abandon his enter- 
prise, which he did accordingly. 

In the year 1774, one John Arnold, from the 
state of Rhode Island, with his family, arrived on 
the east shore of Saratoga Lake. Here he heard 
such accounts of the mineral springs, and the 
land about them, that he was induced to continue 
his journey thus much farther. After having sup- 
plied himself with articles suitable for trading 
with the Indians, he ])rocured a canoe, put on 
board his family, his little stock in trade, together 
with provisions and some furniture, and paddled 
from Snake Hill across the lake, and entered the 
mouth of the Kayaderosseras creek. This stream 



16 

he followed about two miles, when he landed. 
And he and his family, taking his goods and 
household furniture on their backs, entered 
upon a trail which they followed to the mineral 
springs. On arriving here he took possession of 
the house previously built by Scowton, and having 
improved it, opened it as a tavern, and occupied 
it two summers, leaving it the intervening winter. 
After the second summer he abandoned it. 

Its next occupant was Samuel Norton who 
took possession of the house the same season in 
which Arnold left it, and made farther improve- 
ments in it. The following year he cleared and 
cultivated as well as he could, the land about him. 
Norton acted under the patronage of Isaac Law, 
who had previously obtained a title to the land, by 
purchase from Rip Van Dam. In this purchase 
Law was associated with Anthony Van Dam and 
Jacob Walton. The troubles with Great Britain 
having now commenced, Norton became con- 
cerned for the safety of himself and family in their 
exposed situation, and he therefore abandoned 
the improvements that he had made, united him- 
self with the British army, and soon after died. 
His death left the springs again without a white 
inhabitant. Law left the country during the 
revolution, and his property was confiscated. 

1 1 1786, Henry Livingston purchas-ed of the 
commissioners of forfeiture, for himself and 
brothers the land and improvements which had 
previously belonged to Law. 

In 1783, a son of Norton removed to the springs, 
took possession of the property previously occupied 
by his father, and prosecuted the imprnveruents 
already begun, until the year 1787, when he sold 
to Gideon Morgan, who the same year conveyed 
it to Alexander Bryan. Bryan built a blacksmith's 



17 

shop, and an additional log house which he 
opened as a tavern. Bryan we are informed was 
born in Connecticut. At an early day he removed 
to Dutchess county, in this state; thence to Half- 
moon, two miles from Waterford, now in this 
county, and finally to Sarato<ja Springs. And at 
the Jatter place he kept a tavern. During the 
revolutionary struggle he was at Hallmoon, and 
strange as it may appear he is said to have been 
a favorite witli both {)arties. And so well did he 
manage the matters of difference tljat he became 
the confident of both parties, and the repository of 
their secrets. He was employed as a spy by both 
Gates and Burgoyne; while the latter lay with his 
forces at Fort Edward, he communicated to 
General Gates the fact that Burgoyne had crossed 
the river, and was marching his army toward 
Stillwater. This information was consideroil at 
the time important to the American army, Bryan 
was the first permanent settler at the springs alter 
the close of the war. 

Gideon Putnam the son of Rufus and Mary 
Putnam, was born in the town of Sulton, in the 
state of Massachusetts, in the year 1764. Before 
his majority he purchased his time of his lather 
for one hundred dollars. He then married Miss 
Doanda Risley at Hartford, Conn., daughter of 
Benjamin Risley. He immediately set out '"to 
seek his fortune;" bis only means of support for 
himself and wife, being a strong arn), and a 
determined will. The routa they took led them 
to Middlebury, Vt. Here in the midst of the 
wilderness they halted, and readily threw together 
a log cabin. This cabin was built around a white 
oak stump which was squared upon the top, and 
served them as a table. The cabin was without 
a chimney. Their seats were made with three 



18 

le^s of wood placed in a piece of timber riven 
from a log. The site of this cabin is now occuf)ied 
by the Middlebury college buildings. 'J'heir 
household possessions consisted of three white 
teacups and saucers, three white plates, three 
knives and forks, a dish, kettle, an earthen tea-pot 
and a spider. They cut out tlie top of a stump 
deeply concave, and then mounted a heavy sweep 
which turned a wooden pestle, fitted to the 
excavation in the stump. This homely apparatus 
was the mill in which they ground their grain. 
There was a " grist mill" forty miles from them, 
but a dense forest lay between, and hlazed trees 
])ointed out the way. Their oldest child was 
born at Middlebury. Not finding this situation 
quite to their minds they removed to Rutland, Vt., 
While at Rutland their eldest son Benjamin Put- 
nam was born. From Rutland they removed to 
the "Five Nations" or " Bemis Flats" Here 
they were joined by Dr. Clement Blakesly and 
bis wife, who was a sister of Mrs. Putnam. The 
lay of the country, the quality of the soil, and the 
appearance of the timber suited him; and at once 
he put up a cabin, which was occu|)ied by his 
brother-in-law and himself, with their families, 
together with a hired man by the name of ICIijah 
Olds. At Bemis Flats the elements warred 
against them, and proveJ more than a match for 
even Putnam's strength and energy. A violent 
rain storm fell upon thetn in the middle of the 
night, which flooded the surrounding country, and 
drove the hardy pioneers with their wives and 
little ones, on to their beds and furniture, &c., out 
of the reach of the water, which covered the cabin 
floor; without, as far they could see, was one 
vast sheet of water. In this condition was this 
bold, vigorous and determined man caged, and 



19 

unable to extricate himself or liis household. 
Yet in the midst of all this darkness and distress 
they were thought of and cared for. A good man 
by the name of Zophar Scidmore living on the 
east shore of the lake, knew that some emigrants 
had commenced a farm on the "flats." And being 
acquainted with the situation of their cabin, he 
felt sure they must be in suffering, if not danger- 
ous circumstances, he therefore loosed his sail 
boat and taking a light canoe in tow, made all 
possible haste to the rescue. On nearing the 
cabin he fastened his sail boat to some float wood 
which lay piled iipon the bank, and rowed his 
canoe up to the door of the cabin, and conveyed 
first Mrs. Putnam and her young child to his sail 
boat; after securing theai safely, he returned to 
the cabin for Mr. Putnam whom he also rowed to 
the sail boat. Here Scidmore joined Mrs. Putnam 
and conveyed her to his own house. After safely 
disposing of his passengers lie returned to the flood 
wood, whither during his absence the remainder 
of the family had been conveyed in the canoe by 
Putnam. Keloading his little craft with Mrs. 
Blakesly, and the other child, he returned to his 
house; and in the course of tho day, he had 
rescued the whole family, and had them safely 
lodged undci* his most hospitable roof. This 
calamity induced Putnam to abandon his im- 
provements at " Bemis Flatts." And after the 
storm was over, he with his family, and iu com- 
pany with Dr. and Mrs. Blakesly left the house of 
their benefactor, and entered an Indian trail, which 
they followed to ths " Springs," then scarcely 
known, this was in the yej^.r 1789. On arriving at 
what is now the village of Saratoga Spnngs, he 
selected a piece of land, near a fresh water spring, 
and built a cabin. This land is now owned by Joel 



20 

Clement. And the site of the cabin is a few rods 
to the east of Clement's stone house, in the west 
part of the village. 

On reviewing his position at Saratoga, Putnam 
said to his wife, "this is a healthy place, the 
mineral springs are valuable, and the timber is 
good and in great abundance, and I can l)uild me 
n great /?o?z5e," a desire which had haunted him 
from childhood. He at once leased three hundred 
acres of land, girdled the trees about him, and 
put in his crops, and when he could not work 
upon his farm he employed himself and his man, 
who remained with him for years in making 
staves and shingles; these he carried to the 
Hudson river, at the mouth of Fish creek. The 
ensuing spring he put them into a raft, and floated 
them to New York city. At the city he met with a 
ready sale, and returned with means to build a 
saw mill. On his return to his farm, he found 
a new neighbor by the name of William Patching, 
who was a wheelwright by trade. With the 
assistance of Patching, he soon had *his mill 
in successful operation, and kept it running night 
and day. This was situated southwest from his 
house, and the pond belonging to it has been 
known to many generations of boys of the village, 
and indeed, is still familiar to the present race as 
" Put's Pond,'' and has been a favorite swimming 
place ever since. Dr. Blakesly built a log-house 
where Benjamin Putnam for many years resided. 
'I'he next spring Putnam's sawed lumber, added 
to his staves and shingles, made him a large raft, 
which he floated to the city. Building materials 
being scarce, and the demand for them being 
great in the city of New York, he lealized a 
handsome sum for his year's labor. Wiih the 
funds thus realized, he clothed hitnself and family, 



21 

provided a great variety of necessaries, and 
brought home besides " one peck measure of 
silver coin," in an old fashioned pair of saddle 
bags. With this money he paid for the three 
hundred acres of land which he had previously 
held by a lease. But his new garments so changed 
his personal appearance that his wife did not know 
him on his return. One fancy article which he 
brought back with' him from his voyage, was a 
red silk umbrella, which his eldest daughter 
flamished on the ensuing Sunday. Near the 
saw mill pond was the "Indian Joe-field" which 
had been cleared and cultivated by the Indians. 
This field, Putnam used to great advantage, and 
some of the herbs now growing there are said 
to have been originally planted on the place by 
the Indians. This farm is now in the possession 
of James M. Andrews, Esq. 

The third year after Putnam and Blakesly built 
their cabins on opposite sides of the road, 
Blakesly left, and Putnam enlarged the cabin 
built by Blakesly, and occupied it himself. From 
this cabin Putnam removed back into what is the 
present village, and occupied for the year the 
liouse now owned by Thadeus Smith. He then 
moved into a log cabin, which stood upon the 
spot where the St. Nicholas Hall has been recently 
built by one of his descendants. While living 
here, and in the year 1802, he purchased of Henry 
Walton, one acre of land, removed a few of the 
primitive trees, and then built seventy feet of the 
present Union Hall,* His mechanics lodged in 
the attic of the cabin, to which they went u{) on 
the outside by a ladder, and their table was set 

*This buildins:, with its wings, is 650 feet in length, and 
contains about 400 lodging rooms; and the grounds occupied 
by the buildings and appropriated to the use of the hotel, are 
iu area about tour acres. 



outside of the cabin. The spot was then in the 
midst of the forest, and so lar^e a building was 
a novel thing f sr the time. A wagon way had 
bean made at this time, between Saratoga and 
Ballston, and just as Putnam had his house com- 
pleted, some gentlemen riding ymst, and observing 
the house, said in the hearing of Putnam, " that 
man has forgotten the admonition of John 
Rogers, build not your house-top too high." 
This house was the realization of the day 
dreams of Putnam's childhood.* in 1805, he 
purchased from Henry Walton, another strip of 
land which was forty-four rods wide, and extended 
from the east side of what is now Franklin street 
to the lands of Jacobus Barhyte. This tract 
contained one hundred and thirty acres. On the 
west end of this purchase he laid out a village. 
In the southwest corner of this village, being a 
portion of the last purchase, he appropriated a 
piece of land for a burying- ground. This ground 
he afterwards gave to the village, and in it, many 
of the " forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 

In 1806, he excavated and tubed the Washing- 
ton Spring. Soon after this he tubed the present 
Columbian Spring. The number of strangers 
began now to increase annually at the Springs, 
some of whom would come u|» from Ballston, 
take dinner witii Putnam at Union Hall, drink 
the Congress water and return to Ballston. At 
this time, Putnam thought a bathing house was 
needed, he therefore built one on the ground 
directly north from Congress Spring, and six or 
eight feet from the fountain. To supply mineral 
water for this purpose, he excavated a mineral 

*His sign was a rudely painted representation of Putnam 
and the wolf, and is now in tlie possession of his grandson 
George R. Putnam. The tavern was on the site of the preeent 
Union Hall, and owned and occupied by his descendants. 



23 

spring about fifteen feet from the present Congress 
fountain. 

Putnam next tubed the Hamilton Spring, and 
sometime afterwards moved his bathing house 
from Congress S[)ring to the Hamilton. In 1812, 
he began Congress Hall, and while his masons 
were plastering the north end of the piazza, 
he was walking upon the scaffolding, which at the 
moment gave way, and the whole party were 
precipitated on to the timbers and rocks below, the 
floor not having yet been laid. The master 
mason, Sullard, died i:istanlly, his neck being 
broken. All the masons who fell were more or 
less injured. Putnam had some of his ribs broken, 
was otherwise bruised, and was confined to his 
bed for several weeks after the accident. It is 
supposed he never entirely recovered from the 
injuries which he sustained by the fall. In the 
ensuing November he was attacked by an inflam- 
mation of his lungs, of which he died on the 1st day 
of December, J 8 12. His was the first body laid 
in the burying ground which he had presented to 
the village of Saratoga Springs. Thus ended the 
earthly career of this hardy, resolute and enter- 
prising pioneer, whose labors were so interwoven 
with the early history of the place. 

It was to Putnam that we are indebted, more 
than to any other individual for improvements at 
the Springs, during this period of its history. 
His enterprise and energy cleared away the 
forest trees from the adjacent plains, converted 
the rich pineries into materials and means for the 
further development of the town, erected public 
buildings for the accommodation of visitors, 
ojjened highways about the town, improved and 
laid out streets in the village; excavated, tubed 
and secured the mineral springs. These were 



24 

among his early efforts. He was emphatically 
the man of his day in this locality, and he made 
such an impression on the place of his choice, 
that his name must be co-existent with the history 
of the village which his energy did so much to 
develop. He possessed a will whicli no ordinary 
obstacle could long withstand, and by his exertions 
the din and hum of civilization soon took the place 
of the deep and solemn murmur of the primitive 
pine forest. Originally a rocky ledge lay along the 
bluff which faced the valley. This ledge began 
at the Columbian Spring, thence running in a 
northeasterly line to the south side of Con- 
gress street. From this point it took a more 
northerly direction, passing over xha ground now 
occupied by the Congress Hall, and the present 
row of buildings north of it, on the east side of 
Broadway until it reaches the spot on which 
Nathan Lewis built the second brick house ever 
erected in the place. This house is still in good 
preservation, and is now occupied by George H. 
Fish, as a drug store. From this point the rock 
dipped toward the north with so strong an angle 
that at a distance of only seven or eight rods, a well 
was sunk to the depth of thirty feet and yet did not 
come to the rock. Through a deep gorge in the 
table land, leading to the valley near what is now 
Caroline street, passed the surface and spring 
water of the gradually rising land which lies in 
the rear; to pass this gorge the wagon road from 
the Congress Spring to the High Rock was made 
to run westerly nearly as far as the Globe Hotel. 
After passing the gorge, the road took a more 
easterly turn to the upper village. From the 
upper village, this road passed through the Ten 
Springs; thence easterly on the sandy ridge north 
of the " bear swamp" to Scidmore's tavern ; from 
Scidmore's (now Birches), to Grangerville, and 



25 



to Schuylerville, on the Hudson river. This was 
the original road over which was passed all the 
hiniber^of these extensive pineries. Just above 
the present Columbian Hotel, this rocky bUitt 
a^ain appetu's, and extends to the sandy ndge 
north of the upper village. So barren was this 
ridge of rocks, that only a few shrubs and cicuta 
grew upon it. 

Miles Beach moved here from Ballston, about 
the year 1806. He built a store on the site of the 
brick buildings next north from Congress Hall, on 
the east side of Broadway. This was the first 
store opened in this part of the village. Aiter- 
wards Beach built a distillery on the back part 
of the same lot. The first brick house m the 
place was built by Ashabel Andrews. This same 
building stands on the south corner of Washing- 
ton street and Broadway, and was the lale resi- 
dence of the Rev. Francis Wayland.* Nathan 
Lewis afterwards built the Pavilion, which was 
opened May 26th, 1819; it stood on the east side 
of Broadway and north from the Columbian 
Hotel. The Pavilion was surrounded by hand- 
some grounds, on which have since been built 
the present Presbyterian church and the residence 
of D. B. Harrington, Esq. The Pavilion was 
destroyed bv fire several years since. 

The first clearing in the south part of the village 
was made by " Iiidian Jo," a half breed, on the 
rising ground south of the Union. 

In 1783, the springs had become so important 
that General Philip Schuyler opened a road to 
them, twelve miles through a forest from the 
mouth of Fish creek, where he had effected a 
settlement, erected mills, and made many other 
* Since this work has been in press, the building has been 
demolished. 

3 



26 

improvements. Here he raised a tent under which 
he and his family remained several weeks, and used 
the mineral water. And so much were they 
pleased with the effects of the water, that the next 
year he built a small house for the use of himself 
and family <luriiig the summer season, which he 
continued to occupy every succeeding year of his 
life. This was the first framed house built in the 
place. It consisted of two rooms, with a stone 
fire place and chimney; and was finished inside 
and out with rough boards. 

In 1823, John Ford built the original part of the 
Ut)ited States Hotel. Two years after he added 
the south wing. Afterward it passed into the 
hands of James M. Marvin & Co. This conjpany 
made annual impiovements in the buildings and 
grounds. This hotel is now one of the most 
capacious and fashionable public houses in the 
country. There are about six acres in the grounds, 
and it requires a mile and a half of roof to cover 
the buildings. 

The Taylor's Brothers, who were the first mer- 
chants in the place, began business at the upper 
village, and also carried on a heavy lumber trade. 
The Taylors were active, correct business men, 
and were more or less connected with all the im- 
portant events belonging to the early history of 
the country.* 

William Waterbury was the son of Josiah and 
Mary Waterbury. He was born in Stamford, Vt., 
Nov. 24. 1766. At the age of nineteen years he 
married Miss Anna Crawford. When twenty-one 
years of age he emigrated with his wife to East 
line in the town of Ballston, Saratoga county. 
Here he remained two years, and then ]>urchased 
the farm now occupied and owned by Elihu 

* For a full history ol the Taylors, eeo Steele's Analysis. 



27 

WiiiDf, in the town of Greenfield. Two years 
after he sold this farm, and purchased a farm of 
one hundred acres, which lies next south of what 
is now Congress street, in the west part of the 
village. For this land he paid $3.25 per acre. 
His deed was executed by Thomas Storms and 
John K. Beekman, then residents of the city of 
New York. William and his brother Samuel 
afterwards came in possession of a piece of land 
which had been owned by Benjamin Risley, and 
afterwards sold by him to Silas Duel. Samuel 
improved his part, and occupied it for several 
years, and then sold it to Frederick Ellsworth. A 
part of the house on the north side of Congress 
street, now owned and A;cupied by Jonathan 
Pitney, is the original building which was put on 
the land by Samuel Waterbjiry. After the land was 
sold to Ellsworth, Samuel Waterbury removed to 
Chautauque county. William Waterbury occu- 
pied himself with his farm, and made agriculture 
his main business, to which he afterwards added 
that of a butcher, and sup})lied the settlement 
generally with their fresh meat. In the winter 
seasons he was employed with his team in hauling 
lumber for his neighbors, from the surrounding 
])ineries to the Hudson river. Waterbury con- 
nected himself with the Baptist church, in the 
year 1811. The society was then under the care 
of Rev. E. P. Langworthy, who remained its 
pastor for eighteen consecutive years. Their first 
house of worship was a log building, and stood on 
Shipman's hill about four miles south of the 
springs. They next in 1809, built a frame house 
on the Ellis farm, two miles south of the village, 
which building was removed up to the village, 
and is now one of the out-buildings of the United 
States Hotel. Some beautiful trees standing 



28 

about eighty rods east of Carrigan's mills, on the 
south road which leads to the residence of Isaac 
Patrick, mark the place which this building occu- 
pied. The society continued to meet at this 
place, until 1821, at which time they erected a 
houge of worship on a lot presented to the society 
by Gideon Putnam's heirs. The present Baptist 
church edifice, completed in 1856, stands on the 
same spot. 

At the time Gideon Putnam laid out the village, 
he set apart this site, on which to erect a house 
of worship. And directed it to be given to any 
religious society who would place upon it a suitable 
building. The Baptist society were the first 
applicants, and it was accordingly deeded to them 
by the heirs of Gideon Putnam. 

When William Waterbury first reached the 
county, he owed the man who moved him seven 
dollars, and had but two and a half dollars to 
pay him with. He also had a mowing scythe, 
and a pocket knife. Really a small outfit of im- 
plements, and not over well-adapted to begin life 
in a forest wilderness. He was elected constable, 
which ofiice he continuously filled for eleven 
years. He died on the 16tii July, 1843. 

Hon. Henry Walton, one of the largest land- 
holders of the place, was born in the city of New 
York, on the 8th day of October, 1768. At the 
age of twelve years, he was sent to England, 
under the special guardianship of Peter Van 
Schaack, Esq., of Kinderhook, lor the purpose of 
being educated. In his twentieth year he returned 
to the city of New York, and commenced the 
study of law, under the direction of the late Aaron 
Burr. After the conclusion of his legal studies in 
the year 1790, he removed to the town of Balls- 
ton, in the county of Saratoga, where he had pur- 



29 

chased a tract of land, and built a house. This 
place is now known as the " Delavan farm." He 
remained upon this farm until the year 1810, when 
he sold it to a man by the name of Porter, and 
removed with his family to the city of Albany, 
where he resided until the year 1816; at which 
time he removed to the village of Saratoga 
Springs, and took possession of the real estate 
which he inherited from his father, and his uncle, 
who died without issue. During his residence in 
Albany, or in the year 1815, he built the house 
now occupied by Chancellor Walworth.* This 
house he occupied for a few years, when he 
returned to the city of New York. After an 
absence of five years, he returned to Saratoga 
Springs, and immediately erected a beautiful 
country seat on that part of his real estate 
lying north of the village, to which he gave the 
name of " Wood Lawn." His possessions in this 
place, were bounded by what is now Congress 
street on the south; John Dentan's farm on the 
north; and lands of Jacobus Barhydt and others 
on the east. He possessed also many other tracts 
of land in other portions of the county. This 
tract of land included all the present village of 
Saratoga Springs, except what lies south of Con- 
gress street, and all the mineral fountains lying 
north of said street, and within the limits above 
described. 

Henry Walton was a tall fine looking man ; 
truly gentlemanlike in his manners and feelings, 
he had the faculty of binding to himself in close 
social ties the educated and refined about him. 
He was warmly attached to the Episcopal church, 
and was one of the principal men, whose early 
efforts were brought to bear in behalf of this 

*"Pme Grove.'* 



30 

society at the springs. To him belongs the 
honor of presenting the site for the first Presby- 
terian edifice, buiU in this place.* And also the 
site occupied by the Universalist church on 
Church street. The grounds now occupied by 
the " Broadway Hotel," were given to the Method- 
ists by him. He excavated the shaft, tubed the 
Flat-rock Spring, and built over it a chaste little 
Chinese structure, which remained over the foun- 
tain for many years after his death. He also 
excavated and tubed the President, now called 
the Lodine Spring. Mr. Walton wa8 a man of 
high culture, and polished mind; with tastes 
refined by nature, and cultivated by travel and 
observation. He was his own architect, and his 
skill in this branch of art, has been illustrated in 
his several residences at Ballston, Saratoga, 
Greenfield, " Wood Lawn," and in the Pavilion 
Hotel, built by Mr. Lewis in the years 1818 and 
1819. He died in tlig city of New York, on the 
15th day of September, 1841, in the seventy-sixth 
year of his age. 

* The Rev. D. 0. Grieswold was the officiating clergyman 
of this society, at the time the edifice was erected, and to whose 
efforts the society is largely indebted for its early prosperity 
and usefulness. 



31 



CHAPTER III. 

The valley along which the mineral waters of 
this region occur, is more extensive than is 
generally supposed. It is first traceable on the 
banks of the Hudson river in the city of Albany, 
runs in a nortliwesterly direction to the village of 
Ballston, thence to Saratoga, it then takes a course 
a little to the east of north, and finally in a line 
north of east to Argyle, in the county of Wash- 
ington; a distance, which by th3 ordinary high- 
ways of the country, would probably not vary far 
from sixty miles. The acidulous carbonated 
waters are found at different places along this 
mineral range. It has been discovered by boring 
in the city of Albany, and in Ballston and Sara- 
toga; but it generally makes its own way to the 
surface, and all the fountains which have become 
distinguished, for their medicinal qualities have 
been thrown to the surface by subterranean 
agencies. 

The Albany well was discovered by Messrs. 
Boyd and McCulloch, in the year 1826, while 
boring for fresh water for the use of a brewery in 
Ferry street. This boring was carried down four 
hundred and sixty feet. From this depth, the 
water rose nearly to the surface, and was found 
to have a sparkling appearance with an acid and 
saline taste. At the same time another gas was 
detected rising from the well, which was after- 
wards proved to be carbonated hydrogen. The 
boring was then resumed and continued to the 
depth of six hundred feet, while the saline waters 
and both the above gases continued to rise from 



32 

the perforation. The idea of obtaining fresh 
water at this depth was abandoned; but the well 
was carefully tubed, the gases separated, and 
the saline water impregnated with the carbonic 
acid, was raised to the surface by a mechanical 
process. 

Subsequently Mr. McCullock commenced bor- 
ing a second time for fresh water, a few rods 
from the former place. In this instance, at the 
depth of thirty feet, he discovered a vein of 
mineral water which was highly charged with 
sulphurated hydrogen gas, and at the respective 
depths, as in the previous boring, the carbon- 
ated hydrogen, and again the carbonic acid 
gases were emitted. Thus was presented the 
singular and interesting fact, that in this locality, 
at least, are to be found sulphurated hydrogen 
below carbonated hydrogen, and finally carbonic 
acid gas, all issuing in large quantities; but at 
different depths from the same opening. 

The owners were so well pleased with their 
discovery thiit they afterward fitted up a "Min- 
eral Garden." This garden included the mineral 
fountains, the grounds and adjoining buildings, 
constructed with the view of accommodating 
large collections of people ; but at the present 
time it has lost its early charms; the water is 
rarely drank, and the garden, as a place of amuse- 
ment, is abandoned. 

When the water was drawn in large quantities 
from one of the w^ells, the water in the other 
fell correspondingly, thus proving a subterranean 
connection between the two. The chemical con- 
stituents of the water, were proved to be similar 
to those of the waters of Saratoga and Ballston. 
The rock in which this water is found, is the 
Hudson river slate. 



S3 

The specific gravity of the water with the 
atmosphere at 60°, is 1,00900. Temperature of 
the well 51° to 52°. Two analyses of the same, 
one by Dr. Mead, and the other by Professor Beck, 
are as follows, in one pint of water, viz: 

Grains. Grains. 

Cloride of Sodium, 63.00 59,00 

Carbonate of Soda, 5.00 5.00 

Carbonate of Lime, 4.00 4.00 

Carbonate of Magnesia 2,00 1.50 

Carbonate of Iron and Silex,. . 1.00 1.00 

Chloride of Calcium, 50 

75.00 71.00 

Cubic Inches. 

Carbonic Acid Gas, 28.00 26.00 

Of the Ballston fountains, the United States 
Springs the Fulton Chalyheate Spring, the Franklin 
Sulphur Spring, and the Law Well, may be perhaps 
mentioned as the principal fountains. 

The amount of gas in the Ballston fountains 
and the manner of its escape have varied very 
much at different times. Sometimes it passes 
off quietly, and in small particles, and the 
tiny bubbles of gas in rising impart a continuous 
simmering motion to the surface of the water. 
Again the gas will rise in large volumes, and at 
intervals, when the water presents by turns, a 
surface unruffled, and a strong boiling motion; 
and once in the history of this place, the gas rose 
in such quantity and with so much force as to 
produce a jet several feet in hight. This unusual 
action lasted but a short time, and after it sub- 
sided, gas rose, as now, in gentle bubbles through 
the water iii the spring, and along the stream 
below the fountain. 



34 

If we pursue the mineral range five miles in a 
northeasterly direction from Ballston, we come 
to the Ellis Sprinj:, which issues from the slate 
rock which croi)s out at this place. This foun- 
tain has never been p-roperly secured, still the 
water is sufficient!}' pure to estahlish its acidulous 
carbonated character. Farther on in a north- 
easterly direction the springs of Saratoga rise to 
the surface through the calciferous sandstone. 
Here within the distance of a mile, rise fifteen of 
these mineral fountains, each one differing from 
all the rest; yet holding the same kind of chem- 
ical constituents which accompany acidulous car- 
bonated waters, but varying in their proportions. 

The existence of carbonic acid in this vicinity, 
is not limited to the springs, for it is found in the 
clay formations of the surrounding country. But 
as soon as the clay passes directly over the meta- 
morphic rocks, which crop out within about two 
miles, in a north westerly direction from the 
village, the acidulous indications cease. And in 
the course of my experiments upon the subject, I 
found a brick-yard where this line passes directly 
through the center of the works. The clay in the 
south half showing active effervescence, while 
that on the north half was unaffected by the acid. 
A few rods to the north of the yard, the metamor- 
phic rocks cropped out abundantly and boldly, 
through the adjacent fields. 

The large quantity of this gas which is disen- 
gaged from so many fountains, and which saturates 
the whole surface for miles around the springs 
must have a copious source in the earth's crust, 
otherwise geologists would have detected the 
laboratory in which it is produced. 

Still continuing in a northeastern direction from 
the village for about one mile, we find more than 



35 

ten springs bubbling up from the earth's surface 
on the farm formerly owned by John and Ziba 
Taylor, now known as the " Ten Springs." 

One half mile farther to the east, on land 
formerly owned by Richard Searinir, but more 
lately known as the Stew^artf^smi, another mineral 
spring makes its appearance. Still northeast, and 
midway between ^-Doe^s Corners" and ^^ Emerson'' s 
Corners,''^ and on the farm now owned by Daniel 
Gaylor, in the town of Wilton, is another spring, 
clearly of the acidulous carbonated character. 

And in a direction a little more- easterly from the 
village of Saratoga Springs, in the town of Sara- 
toga, is the group called the Quaker Springs. 
Here three springs of tl)e acidulous carbonated 
character, issue from the Hudson river slate. 

And on the east side of the Hudson river, in 
the town of Argyle, is the most easterly develop- 
ment of these peculiar springs. 

There is probably little doubt but that the min- 
eral water underlies the country throughout 
this range from Albany to Argyle; in Washington 
county, taking a circuitous route through Ballston 
and Saratoga Springs. 

The High Rock Spring is justly considered one 
of the greatest natural curiosities in the country. 
It has been known, and was used medically by 
the aborigines. Dr. John H. Steel gave the first 
scientific description of the rock, and it was pub- 
lished in Silliman's Journal, p. 242, 246. Dr. 
Valentine Seamen, in 1809, also published a 
description of the spring. And in the course of 
his remarks he says, "The more we reflect upon 
it, the more we must be convinced of the import- 
ant place this rock ought to hold among the 
wonderful works of nature. Had it stood on the 
borders of the Logo d'Agnans, the noted Grotto 



S6 

del Cani, which, since the peculiar properties of 
carbonic acid have been known, burdens almost 
every book which treats upon the gas, would 
never have been heard of beyond the environs of 
Naples; whilst this fountain in its place, would 
have been deservedly celebrated in story, and 
spread upon canvas, to the admiration of the 
world, as one of the greatest curiosities." 

At the surface of the ground, the circumference 

of the High Rock is, 24 feet, 4 in. 

Diameter of the aperture, four 

inches below the top, 12 " 

Hight of the rock above the ground, 3 " 6" 
Water in the rock above the ground, 1 " 4 '^ 
Depth of the spring from the top 

of the rock, 10 " " 

From the top of the rock to the 

rock to the water within, 2 " 2 " 

The walls of the rock are of nearly uniform 
thickness throughout. This gives a pyramid of 
water within the rock, not dissimilar in form to 
its external surface. 

Water under the pressure of the atmosphere 
holds its own volume of carbonic acid gas in 
solution, more volumes of the gas may be dis- 
solved in water by pressure alone. The mineral 
waters of Saratoga at the temperature of 212° dis- 
engages one and a half volumes of carbonic acid. 
The mineral substances held in solution in the 
springs, by this gas are magnesia, lime and iron. 
These substances together with a few other 
materials from the surroundings of the fountains, 
leaves and twigs of trees, compose the High 
Rock. This is not an isolated instance of this 
kind of formation at Saratoga, for deposits more 
or less extensive may be found about the aper- 
ture of the springs. This highly charged water 



37 

on rising to the attnosphera can hold hiii one 
vohiine of the gas in soUition. It tlierefore pre- 
cipitaies its excessive carbonaies about the oritif^e 
of the fountain in small particles at a time. If 
these precipit-jtes are sufFerei! to rest and to 
accumtdate, they will in time unite with each 
other, and a roclv of calcareous tufa of greater or 
less size is the residt. See plate. The Flit llock 
being covered by the s )il has not been so 
frequently Sf'en, yet tpute a large amount of this 
deposit must liave been thrown down at this 
place. About ihe mouth of the Empire Spring 
was also a deposit of tufa in the form and about 
the size of an inverted two quart bowl, having in 
its loj) a per:oration of about two inches in 
diameter, and of an oval form. And from the 
nature of the case, thefO deposits must always 
be going on. But «'urrents of water may move 
them away mechanically before they have a 
period of repose long enough to accumulate and 
become cemented together. This was the case 
with the original Congress Spring The position 
of the rock out of the side of which it flow cl, and 
the sliajte of the siu-face of the ground, together 
with its raj)id descent to the brook wfiich runs 
ntar, would [)revent any accumulation of tufa at 
this spring. But the relations of the new Con- 
gress differ from the old. At the mouth of the 
former, a de[)osit of tufa has been made, con- 
taining jtieces of tumblers, pins, and a larger pro- 
portion of Silex, together with many other 
extraneous subilances, instead of the small twigs 
and leaves of trees which occasionally occur in 
specimens of the kind. This variety in the 
canglomerates, while it shows the different sur- 
rounding circumstances at different periods, at 
the same time, proves the general principle. 
4 



38 

It will be seen then that the High Rock is not 
the only thinj? of its kind as some may have sup- 
posed. But it nevertheless so far as U known, is 
the great specimen of the kind. It stands high 
above the ground, is accessible, but yet it is to 
be feared, that there are but a few comparatively 
who view it, who fully realize the fact, that the 
specimen before them is probably the most 
remarkable of its kind upon the whole face of 
the earth. 

And in this connexion may I be permitted to 
urge upon the inhabitants of the village, as well 
as strangers, sacredly to ahstain from marring, 
defacing, or removing a single atom of the stone. 
For be it remembered, as a speciuien it belongs 
to the world. And every person is in duty bound 
to protect it. 

This water as we have elsewhere said, con- 
tinued to be used by the inhabitants, until the 
discovery of the Congress Spring, in the year 
1792; which as it proved to be less stimulating, 
was better adapted to tlie majority of cases than 
the High Rock. The water of this s^jring has 
always been uniform in quality, and is one of our 
best tonics. It is a little remote from the large 
hotels of the place, it is not therefore so much 
used as it ought to be, by debilitated patients. 
This spring is sitjated in the north part of the 
valley, a short distance from the Iodine and 
Empire Springs. The rocks rise rapidly in its 
rear to the bight of thirty or forty feet. The 
grounds about the spring are unimproved. And 
may it not be considered a pity that the original 
forest trees had not been left standing, so that this 
great specimen might now be seen as nearly as 
possible in its primitive state. 

In the year 1767, the Indians introduced the 



,iiiiiiiiiMiii"f"iiii! 




39 

waters of the High Rock Spring to the whites as 
a remedy. During the q larter of a century 
which immediately followed Sir William John- 
son's visit to the springs, but few improvements 
were made, and these were limited to the im- 
mediate vicinity of the High Rock; and the 
knowledge of the country which the whites had 
was also confined to such portions of it, as lay 
along tlje trails, which led from the settlements 
on the river and the 1 ike, to the mineral fountains. 
Yet the spring continued to attract more and 
more attention. Persons traveling from one 
section of the country to another, if p acticable, 
took the mineral fountain in their way, drank the 
water, and amused themselves in hunting in the 
surrounding forests. In the year 1792, or twenty- 
five years after the visit of Johnson to the springs, 
one of these parties had been on a hunting excur- 
sion in a southerly direction from the High Rock, 
and when returning to the settlement, entered 
U[)on a trail which led them to a new spring. At 
that time the water flowed from an a[)erture in a 
rock, which was a part of the general ledge, 
which extended from the Columbian Spring to 
the High Rock. The direction of this ledge was 
nearly east, for about two hundred feet from the 
Columbian Spring, at this point the ledge took a 
more northerly direction. This change in its 
course gave a prominence to the portion of the 
rock situated at the angle. And this was the 
point from which issued the original Congress 
Spring. This rock was about three feet hioh, 
and the aperture through which the water flowed 
was about eighteen inches from the ground. The 
water trickled over the side of the rock, which 
lay within a few feet of the brook, and soon 
mingled with the stream, and passed away 



40 

through the valley. One of this hunting party 
was John Taylor Gil man, who was at the time a 
memher of Contrress. On testin<j^ the wa*er they 
were particularly pleased with iis qna'ity. And 
after repealed visits to tije spriiifr, in company 
with the most prominent men of the settlement, 
they in counsel, named it Cori<rress Sfuing. 
Therehy handing it over to the people of the com- 
monwealth, who have ever since enjoyed its 
benefits. 

The water rapidly rose in reputation, and soon 
became the favorite sprinj(. it was secured by 
pressing: a drinking vessel ajrainst the rock. In 
this way it took a long time to obtain small 
quantities of the water, for it dit-charjied ordy 
about one qu irt per mintite, and a large portion 
of this was necessarily lost. But all agreed as to 
the quality of the water. About this time Giileon 
Putnat)i's far-seeing eye dit-covered in part the 
future importance of the spring. He made pur- 
chases of land in its vicinity, and bejzan his 
improvements. As the accommodations for stran- 
gers improved, the demand lor the water increased 
beyond ihe ability of the sprinir to supply. 

To obviate this deficiency, Putnain turned the 
brook a few feet to the north from its original 
channel. And being directed by btdi' les of gas 
which were constanily rising through the channel 
of the brook, he sunk a shaft to the rock. On 
reaching it the water ceased to flow from the 
orijrinal ajjerture. The mineral water rose in 
abundance, and he secured it as well as he could 
in a tid)e mideof ])ine jilanks. Aftor fidiiig in 
about the tube, water rose to the dej)th of seven 
feet; the mineral water flowed from the aperture 
in the rock, but in diminished quantities. The 
new spring furnished a great abundance of water. 



41 

And at one time Putnam had two potash kettles 
evaporatinsj the mineral water. The salts thus 
precipita'ed they sold in small j)ackages. The 
sales diirinjr some yeirs amounted to several 
himdred d"llars. But it was boon foiuid that 
these precipitated salts did not produce C<in«;ress 
water when redissolved, and the further evapora- 
tion was ahandoned.* 

In 1826, John Clarke a native of Yorkshire, 
EuLdand, purclinsed from the Livingstons the 
farm on which the Congress S[)ring is situated. 
Mr. Clarke vvas well calcidated by education and 
experience to take charge of the spring. He was 
well acquainted with the properties of acidulous 
drinks, he having opened the first snda fountain 
in the city of New York. Soon after Clarke's 
purchase of the spring, he began bottling the 
water for exportation. So well did he do this 
that he very soon realized a handsome annual 
income from this source alone. Clarke extended 
his purchases of real estate from time to time, 
so that at the period of his death, he owned in 
lands contiguous to the spring about one thousand 
acres His improvements were always of the 
best kind, as may be illustrated by the beautiful 
crescent lawn, which he reclaimed from the deep 
mud swanif), which lay south and east of the 
spring. And the classic Doric structure, as it 
orijjinally stood in its simi)le beauty, over the 
Congress Spring, and the pretty Grecian dome 
over the Columbian Spring, are but incidental 
specimens of the many improvements, which his 
large means, generous spirit and good taste 
bestowed upon the village. Clarke's nm-se out- 
lived him some years And he did not forget her 
while he lived, and left her a handsome annuity 
as long as she should survive. Mr. Clarke 

* See page 63. 



42 

married Mrs. Kliza Bryer, widow of the late 
Charles White, Esq., ot the firm of Emmet & Co., 
attorneys and counsellors at law, New York city. 
He died on the 6th day of May 1846, aged seventy- 
three years. 

The Congress water continues to sustain its 
high reputation, and is resorted to by thousands 
during the drinking seasons, some of whom have 
paid their annual visits to the s[)rings for lorty- 
five consecutive years. It is a cathartic water, 
and should be used in the morning for that pur- 
pose. It has also been employed in cases of renal 
calculi, with decided beneficial eifects. 

The analysis of the water gives the following 
ingredients in one gallon: 

Chloride of Sodium,. 360.560 

Carbonate of Soda, 8 000 

Carbonate of Lime, 82.321 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 78.242 

Carbonate of Iron, 3.64.5 

Hydriodate of Soda, 4.531 

Silica, 0510 

Alumina, 0.231 

Solid contents, 538.040 

Carbonic Acid, 340.231 

Atmospheric Air, 4.000 

Gaseous contents........ 644.231 

Columbian Spring. — This fountain is situated a 
few rods southwest of the Congress Spring. It is 
a ferruginous water, and contains large quantities 
of carbonic acid in a free state, which rises from 
the surface of the water in very large bubbles, 
causing a motion in the spring not very dissimilar 



43 

to boiling water. The carbonic acid may be 
collected at the mouth of tlie spring, to any 
extent desirable for scientific purposes, and at 
any time. 

This fountain contains the same constituent 
properties as the Congress, but differing very 
much in their relative quantity. Its w^ater is very 
tonic, and should be used with great caution 
where this kind of medicine is not decidedly 
indicated; but where it is clearly demanded, the 
large quantities office gas, together with the iron 
present in it, render it a tonic water of great value 
in many cases of irritable stomach, and week 
digestive and assimilating organs. But its activity 
makes it important that it be used carefully, 
and subject to proper restrictions. 

One gallon of the water furnished on an analy- 
sis the following ingredients: 

Chloride of Sodium, 290.501 

Carbonate of Soda, 26.000 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 40.321 

Carbonate of Lime, 90.000 

Carbonate of Iron, 6 000 

Hydriodate of Soda, 3.000 

Selica and Alumina, 1.531 

Solid contents, 457.353 

Carbonic Acid, 330.000 

Hamilton Spring.— Th\s fountain situated in 
the rear of Congress Hall, and a few rods north- 
east of Congress Spring, was first discovered and 
tubed by Gideon Putnam, Esq., and afterwards 
retubed and brought to its present condition by 
Dr. CI u-ke. For the last twenty or thirty years 
it has been most used as an alterative; for this 
purpose it was a favorite spring with the late Dr. 



44 

Steel — and also as a cathartic in very weak and 
feeble stomachs ; and where the Congress liad 
proved too active and exhaustin«r, even in small 
doses, this water woidd succeetl like a charm. 
As a diuretic, in many nep!iritic diseases, its use 
has been attended wi h the most happy re^uhs. 
The water wiihin the tube rises nearly to a level 
with the ground, and the surlace of the water is 
constantly agitated by a free escape of fixed air, 
rising in alternate bubbles from the interior of 
the fountain. 

One gallon of the water furnished the following 
ingredients in analysis: 

Grains 

Chloride of Sodium, 298.(;56 

Carbonate of Soda, 34 250 

Carbonate <»f Lime, 97.996 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 39.066 

Carbonate of Lime, 4.625 

Hydriodate of Soda, 3.598 

Silex and Alumina, 1 000 

Solid contents, 479.191 

Carbonic Acid, 320.777 

Atmospheric Air, 1 461 

Gaseous contents, 322.238 

Temperature of the spring, 48° 

Pavilion Fountain.— Th\s truly beautiful spring 
is situated in the rear of the Columbian Hotel, 
and a few rods southeast of the Flat Rock Spring; 
it was long since discovered, and experiments 
made upon the watsr by the late John II. Steel. 
Its remoteness, however, from the bank which 
gave egress to the other mineral fountains in the 



45 

valley, ])laced it in the midst of a deep morass, 
where it rises through an alUivial deposit of over 
forty feet in de|tth. This situation of the sprinji 
made it difficult to tube it. Hut in 1839, it passed 
into tlie hands of Daniel McLaren, who, braving 
all obstacles, at great expense ot labor and time, 
succeeded in securing the present fountains, as 
well as in)proving the deep morass about it. 

1 he cleft was excavated and tubed in the Ibllow- 
ing manner: 

A crib of fifteen feet square, with logs locked 
together firtnly at four corners, was placed 
around the spring. The work of excavation next 
followed, and as tlie swamp mud was thrown 
out, the crib was settled down. As the excava- 
tion proceeded, the water was raised from the 
shaft by lurae pumps, kept at work day and 
night. In this way, the excavation was ma le to 
the distance of forty feet. 'J he direction of the 
rising bubbles was followed throughout. At this 
depth they struck the "hard pan," when the gas 
led in a lateral direction, and towards the west 
side of the valley. 'J'his lead they followed for 
several feet by ciuting a trench, amlthen placed 
in this trench, what they called a '' shoe." The 
toe of this shoe occupied the western extremity 
of the trench, which was also several inches low- 
er than the other end, or heel ot the shoe. They 
next {)laced a tube over the 'heel of the shoe in a 
perpendicular j)osition, and raised it high enough 
to pass the surface, and such filling in as would 
reuiler the grounds dry and plensant about the 
springs. They then filled in about the tube with 
clay. The whole lube as it is now placed, more 
resembles a man's hoot than a shoe. The water 
is ])leasant to the taste and exh derating to the 
spirits. It was bottled by McLaren, and since 



46 

the repurchase by the Walton family, has been 
bottled by them also. It is a favorite water for 
drinking at the spring; both with the inhabit- 
ants, and strangers. 

This s}>ring is owned by the Messrs. Walton, 
who have farther improved the grounds about tlje 
fountain, by fiJhng them in, changing tlie channel 
of the creek, laying out foot walks, planting of 
shade trees and constructing suitable biiildings 
for bottling the water. This water has been bot- 
tled since 1840. The free acid of the spring is 
most abundant, and passes off in great quantities 
from the mouth of the fountain. This large 
amount of free gas imparts to the tongue a smart, 
pungent taste. 

The following is the analysis of one gallon of 
the water. 

Grains. 

Chloride of Sodium, 183.814 

Carbonate of Soda, 6,000 

Carbonate of Lime, 59,593 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 58,266 

Carbonate of Iron, 4,133 

Iodide of Sodium and Bromide 

of Potassa, 2,566 

Silex and Alumina,. . . . , 1,000 

Solid contents of one gallon.. . . 315,372 
Gaseous contents of one gallon, 372,499 

Iodine Spring. — This fountain is situated in the 
north-east part of the village, and a few rods 
north and east of the High Rock. 

In 1835 my attention was particularly called to 
the President Spring, situated quite near the High 
Rock ibuntain. From the exp^rin)ents I then 
made upon the water of this spring, I came to the 
conclusion, that if the mineral stream supplying 
the fountain were properly secured, the water 



lilllil!";"'!!i!"'""''" 




47 

would, in all probability, bottle very well. The 
conclusions I had arrived at, and the reasons for 
them being coirimunicated to some gentlemen of 
the village, they obtained a lease of the spring 
from Judge Walton, made a liberal excavation, 
secured the mineral water by a wooden tube, and 
thus raised it nearly to the top of th€ ground. To 
tliis spring they gave the name of" Iodine." 

Since that time it has been subject to a num- 
ber of different directors, and has finally gone 
back into the possession of Judge Walton's heirs. 
Though comparatively a light water, it proves to 
be well adapted for bottling. When taken in 
])roper quantities, and subject to reasonable re- 
strictions, it sets well on the stomach. 

One gallon of the water furnishes the following 
ingredients, on analysis: 

Chloride of Sodium, 180731 

Carbonate of Soda, ^3.000 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 73,213 

Hydriodate of Sodium, 3.Q35 

Carbonate of Lime, 30,000 

Carbonate of Iron 1 ,000 

Silica and Alumina, 500 

Solid contents, 291,679 

Carbonic Acid and Atmospheric 

Air, 335,000 

Empire Spring. — This spring is the most north- 
erly one in the village which has attracted general 
attention. It is situated on the west side of the 
valley, and immediately behind it lies a bluff of 
Trenton limestone, forty feet in height. This 
limestone appears to be a detached portion, and 
extends only two rods in width by three in length, 
and lies on a ledge of calciferous sandstone. 



48 

The water issues through a perforation in the 
calciferous sandstone. A knowledge of this 5 ar- 
ticular form of the opening is of great iiu[)ortance 
in ndjusting a suitable lube. 

Mineral water has been known to trickle down 
the bank at this point ever since the land was 
cleared of its primitive shrubs. But it attracted 
no particular attention, for spriiigs of mineral 
water which appeared eq lally imposing were, 
and are now, to be found issuing from many 
points along the mineral valley, and the i)romi- 
uent and conspicuous position which the High 
Rock and the original Congress Sjding occupied 
turned all eyes tov^ards them. As they furnished 
water in ample quantity, and of the best qualities, 
to supply the demand, there appeared to b*i no 
necessity for the intiodiiction of a new spring. 
The ground about the Empire spring was for a 
long lime advantageously occupied by lime-kilns. 

In the year 184(5, tlie lou^itain was taken in 
charge. A shaft was excavated to the rock, a tube 
adjusted to the aperture, and the Empire spring 
was secured. The fact that the Empire water 
passes the calciferous sandrock by a pertbration is 
of jireat practical value, as a tube may be scribed 
to the surface of the rock, and thus obviate the 
necessity of employing artificial means to secure 
the water with its lidl complement of gas. 

It will be easily apprehended that artificial 
means are scarcely available in confining or even 
in directing a current of acidulous carbonated 
water. Materials which woidd answer well in 
cases of common spring water will be entirely 
useless with the mineral water. The " water 
cement" answers an admirable purpose with fresh 
water, but with mineral waters is entirely insuf- 
ficient, for it proves no barrier to the escape of 



49 

the gfis, and will in time be taken into combina- 
tion Willi it: and a mineral spring wiiliout gas is a 
poor affair. And a similar r -suit follows in other 
kinds of packing which have been tested in ac- 
tual experiments by the author. IJdt, as in the 
Empire, when the gaseous water p<MSses tlirough 
a heavy stratutn of rock by a small a|)erture, a 
groove carefully cut in the rock around the mouth 
of the spring and a well secured pine tube prop- 
erly ])laced in a groove and afterwards fill.-d 
about with clay, would be a simple and most 
efficient way to set a tube. But this form of 
tubing will not be applicable to those fountains 
which pass through the rocks in clefts and fis- 
sures. To illustrate with what extreme divisibil- 
ity the carbonates are held in solution in water, 
and with what readiness they pass through ordi- 
nary barriers, a pint of mineral water may be 
placed in a flaring vessel, say an ordinary baking 
dish, then apply a gentle heat until the whole 
salts are precipitated; the outside of the vessel 
as high as the water stood will be frosted over 
with the precii)itated caibonates which had been 
held in solution in the water by the gas, and not 
by the water. Here the salts are precipitated al- 
though the dish is flaring and uncovered, yet the 
carbonates pass through the pores of the gliizing 
as well as through the sides of the vessel, and that 
too in a lateral direction. 

The tube in the Umpire spring is scribed down 
to the surface of the rock, and is eleven feet and 
six inches in length. The column of mirjeral 
water in the tube shows the surface of the rock 
is nine feet six inches. 

This mineral fountai i discharges seventy-five 
gallons per hour. It is a good cathartic and 
alterative water, and has proved itself adapted to 
5 



50 

a wide rang^e of cases. And when we consider 
its remote situation, the ])0|Hilarity of other and 
older sprintjs, the stronj^ attachments which per- 
sons form by the habit of drinking of tham, and 
their corresponding prejudices, we are surpr'sed 
at the rapid stride this spring lias made in public 
estimation during the short period of six or eight 
years. 

For cathartic purposes, the Congress and Em- 
pire water should be drank in tlie morning in 
quantities varying frotn one pint to three, accord- 
ing to the state of the case. As an alterative, 
from one-fourth ])art of a tumbler to a whole 
tumbler should be taken three or four times a 
day. 

The chalybeate waters may be taken in portions 
ranging from one gill to a pint, three or four 
tijues a day. 

The cathartic effects of the Empire and Con- 
gress water are increased by raising the temper- 
ature of the water 20° or 30°. If this is done by 
})lacing the bottle in warm water before drinking, 
the cork should be withdrawn; because the in- 
creased cathartic power is owing to the escape 
of carbonic acid, i'his water when bottled should 
be kept as near to 48° Fahrenheit, as possible; 
and the bottle should be taken from the box and 
put in a refrigerator ten or twelve hom-s before 
using. This brings it to much the same temper- 
ature and condition as when drank fresh from 
the fountain. 

The improvements in the north end of the 
town have been much increased within a few 
years, and particularly those in the immediate 
vicinity of the Empire Spring. Reducing the 
unwholesomes swamp, opening new drive ways, 
and grading hills and laying out handsome village 



51 

lots, are a few of the many heavy expenditures 
which have been snslained by Western and com- 
pany alone. Neither have they been behind 
their fellow citizens generally, in the cultivation 
of large numbers of shade trees, which iu titne 
will add greatly to the beauty of their grounds and 
avenues. And it is to be ho|)ed that these im) 
provements may be continued by themselves and 
others, with even increased energy. Nature has 
done much in that part of the town, and art 
sparingly employed, will convert the upi)er part 
of the town into a beautiful village. Ifthehillon 
the west side of the valley was {)roperly terraced, 
and willow and other appropriate trees were 
planted along the stream, we should have delight- 
ful promenades and as fine situations for resid- 
ences as are to be found in town. And these 
improvements might be carried on with an outlay 
by no means large. 

One gallon of the Empire water furnished the 
following ingredients on analysis: 

Chloride of Sodium, 270,000 

Carbonate of Lime, 145,8*21 

Carbotiate of Magnesia,. ...... 43,123 

Carbonate of Soda, 30,304 

Hydriodate of Soda, 8,000 

Carbonate of Iron, 3.000 

Silica, , 1,000 

Solid contents, .^. . 590,748 

Gaseous contents, 700 

Specific gravity, 1,056 

White Sulphur Spring. — This spring is situated 
on the east side of Saratoga Lake, about half a 
mile south of Snake Hill, in a beautiful ravine of 



52 

a few rods in width, through the center of which 
runs a siruill stream, supplied by fresh water 
springs issuing from either hank. Within twenty 
rods of the lake a niche is f()rmed in the south 
hank. Near the center of the niche and at the 
base of the blufJ rises the Sulphur Spring, and its 
course to the brook is marked by a <leposit of 
sulphur. The water is strouiily charged with 
sulphurated hydrogen gas, and is very pellucid. 
Its taste is like other waters of the class, very 
offensive to those unaccustomed tu drink it. A 
iiew years since a immber of gentlemen from the 
village purchased the farm in which the spring 
rises, sunk a shaft, and adjusted a new tube. 
They also built baths and other accommodations 
for the use of visitors. A steamboat was also 
placed on the lake 1o ply between the Lake House 
and the spring, which made two trips daily. Two 
or three years subsequently, the buildmg took 
f;re and burned to the ground. The year follow- 
ing, the boat was removed from the lake, and all 
the arrangements which had been made to bring 
the sul()hur water into notice have been, for the 
present, suspended. But since the loss of the 
boat and the burning of the house, a bridge has 
been thrown across the outlet of Saratoga Lake. 
And now, if a road shonid be constructed along 
the lake shore to Snake Hill and thence to the 
Sulphur Spring, it vvoidd be immediately brought 
within [iracticable distance of the village, and a 
ne^Jv and beautiful drive of three hours would be 
opened. 



53 



CHAPTER IV. 

Chloride of sodium is distributed very generally 
over t'le surface of the globe. The ocean, seas, salt 
lakes and mineral springs, hold large quantities of 
it in solution, while Kussia, Germany, Poland, 
Hungary, Africa, Spain, England and South Ame- 
rica, furnish large deposits of this salt in a fossil 
state. 

There is a fossil deposit in Nantwick, Cheshire, 
England, which will illustrate this mineral form- 
ation, in the stale of rock salt. 

This salt formation lies one hundred and sixty 
miles north-west from the city of London, on the 
banks of the river VV^eaver, near the confluence 
of that stream with the Don. It extends over 
parts of the townships of Willan Castle, Nant- 
wick, VVinninglon, Marsdon, Liflwickand Ander- 
ton. At Nantwick there is one mass of this salt 
which is sixty-five feet thick, three thousand nine 
bundled feet wide, and a mile and a half long; 
supplying annually sixty thousand tons of salt, 
which are conveyed thence to Liverpool by the 
Weaver and Mersey. Under this fossil are salt 
wells, varying in depth from ninety to one hun- 
dred and twenty feet. From these wells alone 
forty-five thousand tons ot salt are annually pro- 
cured by artificial evaporation, which is also 
marketed in the city of Liverpool. 

Odier portions of the country supply fifty-one 
thousand totis; making in all, one hundred an 1 
eighty-six thousand tons of salt exported from a 
single fossil deposit. If this deposit may be ac- 
cepted as a s})ecimen of the productiveness of 
rock salt formation in general, immense quantities 



54 

of tliis substance must exist ou the surface of the 
earth. 

But large as this estimate makes the quantity 
of saline deposits in the interior of the earth, yet 
it rej)resents hut a small ])ortion of the aggregate 
of this substance contained in ocean, sea, lake, 
&c., all of which vary greatly in the strength of 
tlieir sohitions. 

It is found, as is well known, in the fluids of 
the animal system, supplieil doubtless by their 
food. A certain amount of this substance seems to 
be necessary for the healthful condition of animal 
life, though an excess of it is followed by disease, 
as is noticeable in the ffict, that persons long at 
sea, who eat but few vegetables and use salt meat 
freely, usually siifl>^r from scurvy. A disease not 
unlike i^ctuvy, and produced by the same cause, 
is not uncommon on lai d. 

When taken int > the stomach it may act as a 
tonic, cathartic, diuretic, emetic and aniiceptic; 
its effects being determined by the state of the 
system at the lime it is taken, aiul the quantity 
used. Saline baths are particularly a[)propriate 
for persons with a relaxed, moist skin, and for 
children of scrofulous habits and low nutrition. 
One pound of salt to four gallons of water is a 
suitable fcolulion for this purpose. It is soluble 
in twice its weight of water at 60° Fahr. (See 
Bathing page.) 

As an anticeptic it hns been long known and 
very generally used. Fish and flesh are pre- 
served by it for long perio<lsof time. In the year 
1805, there was a piece of beef in the Leverian 
Museum, London, which was a remnant of the 
provisions taken by Lord Anson on his voyage 
" around the world " between the years 1739 and 
1744. 



55 

In agriculture it has been used as a fertilizer, on 
dry lands. As it is a deliquescent salt it attracts 
water from the atmos[)here, thereby in ])art to 
suf'ply the deficiency of moisture in the soil. 

The quantity of this salt obtained by evapora- 
tion from a given amount of any of the iriiueral 
springs at SaratOL'a, is equal to nearly one-half 
the sum of all the salts contained in them. 

Cliloride of Sodium occurs, geologically, in the 
secondary formations, associated with gypsum, 
slate, clay deposits, limestone and red sand stone. 

Although the United States contain no deposits 
of fossil salt, so far as we know, yet brine springs 
are numerous in this coimiry, and some of them 
are among the most celel)rated in the world. 
Those of Salina, Onondaga county, N. Y., are 
justly distinguished. They hold in solution 19 
per cent of tijis salt. The state of New York 
draws a large j)art of her revenue from the manu- 
facture of salt at Salina, and annually employs 
several thousand persons about the works. 

Thirty-three and one-quarter gallons of Salina 
water will furnish a bushel of salt of the ordinary 
marketable dryness, while at 

Nantucket, 350 gallons make one bushel. 

New York, 300 

Boon's Licks, Mo., 460 " " " " 
Connaugh, Penn., 300 " " " " 
Zanesville, Ohio, 95 " " " " 
Saline, N. Y., fnew springs), 30 gallons make one 
bushel. 

In the year 1841, 3,134,317 bushels of salt were 
inspected at the Onondaga salt works.* In the 
arts this salt is much used in the manufacture of 
carbonate of soda. 

* Geological Eeports of New York. 



56 

Its existence in the mineral waters of Saratoga 
was demonstrated by Valentine Seaman in 1809. 

Cnrhonnle of Soda. — This salt was first called 
Natron, from the nain^ of the desert fi-om which 
it was taken. When it exists as a solid it is 
called native soda. 

It is cliiefly found in Egypt, Hungary and South 
Aujerica. It occurs j)rinri|)ally in lakes and small 
])onds, from which it is taken in a state of solu- 
tion and evai)orited by the sim. 

Soda has been obtained l)y the incineration of 
niarine |)Iants. In Spain these plants have been 
cultivated lor the pirpose of procuring carbonate 
of soda; and the best quality has been obrain«*d 
from the Berilla thus produced. Keif) iis another 
form of impure soda whieh is obtained also from 
the ashes of marine f)lants: but the Salicornia, 
from which the impure form of soda is obtained, 
grows on the rocky coast of many countries — as 
Wales, Scotland and Ireland. 

This salt is colorless, possesses an alkaline re- 
action and a disag-eeable taste. It effervesces 
with acids, is solui)le in about two parts of cold 
water, and in a blaze of alcohol it burns with a 
yellow flune. Its usual impurity is common salt 
which is easily detected by a solution of nitrate 
of silver. But at the present day it is more gene- 
rally procured from common salt than from mar- 
ine plants. Medicinally it is used to correct an 
acid condition of the secretions — as gout, gravel 
and certain forms of dyspepsia. It has been used 
also in whooping-cou^h, bronchocele and scrof- 
ula. Dr. Perchier, at Geneva, corssiders it prefer- 
able to iodine in the treatment of bronchocele. 

In diseases of the skin where a papulous or 
scaly state of the surface exists, it is administered 



57 

in doses of from ten grains to a half drachm in 
some bitter infusion. But an overdose acts as a 
corrosive and irritant poison. Antidotes are olive 
oil, acetic acid, or lemon juice. A proper strength 
for a lotion is from ten j^ruins to three drachnjs to 
a pint of water; and for a general bath, eight to 
sixteen onnces in about ten gallons of water. 
The ointment rr-ay be formed varying in strength 
from eight to sixty grains to one ounce of lard, 
according to tJie case. It was detected as a con- 
stituent of tiie Saratoga mineral water in the year 
1809, by Valentine Seamen of New York. 

Carbonate of Lime. — This substance is widely 
spread through many of the surface rocks, and 
appears under some one of the various forms of 
spar, and common and shell limestone, marble, 
marl and chalk; and in the suiface water of all 
linjestone countries, and enters largely into the 
composition of the shells of fishes. In tlie form 
of limewater and prepared chalk, it is frequently 
used to correct acidity of the stomach occasioned 
by weak digestion. It is decomposed by heat 
and the acids; also by potassa, soda, baryta, stron- 
tia, and by acidulous and metallic salts. V. Sea- 
man demonstrated its presence in the Saratoga 
water in the year le09. 

Carbonate of Magnesia. — This substance was 
discovered in the begirming of the eighteenth 
century, and was vended in the shops of Italy 
as a secret remedy, and possessing, of course, 
great curative jtowers, under the imposing name 
of "Count Palmer." But, in 1755, Dr. Black 
examined it, and clearly demonstrated its chemi- 
cal composition. 

It exists largely in nature, and is one of the 



58 

four earths forminf^ so considerable a portion of 
the crust of our planet. It is principally derived 
from the l)itterns in salt })ans after the crystaliza- 
tion of cornnion salt; and Scothmd, New En*jland 
and I'altitnore are c«'lehrated for its manufacture. 
It is sjiariri'ily sohdilo in water, hut is more so at 
a temperature of (]0° than '^12°. 'J iiis is owing 
to the j)Hrtia] ex|)ulsion of the carhonic acid by 
the heat of the water, whicl) acid renders it par- 
tially soluble in that menstruum. This is the gas 
so freely evolved from the mineral fountains of 
this place, which holds in solution the magnesia 
and other carbonates. 

As a cathartic, carbonate of magnesia is very 
generally used in cases of weak digestion; and in 
cases ot an acid stomach it j)roduces most salu- 
tary effects. The morbid acids of the stomach 
and bowels decompose the carbonate of magnesia, 
and, forming other salts of magnesia in the bow- 
els, leave the carbonic acid in a free state in the 
first i)assages, this is most acceptable to these 
organs even when in a sensitive and irritable 
condition. 

These soothing properties render it very ap- 
plicable to dehilitated adults, and in many diseases 
incidental to childhood. 

As a lithontriptic, it has been prescribed to 
prevent the formation of calculi when the uric 
acid predominates. 

It is an antidote to poison by arsenic, and nitric 
and sulphuric acids. Its existence in these waters 
was first determined by Valentine Seamen of 
New York, 1809. 

Carbonate of Iron. — This salt of iron has been 
long known, and is widely distributed through 
the mineral, vegetable and the animal kingdoms, 



69 

probably, in part, givin«]c the varied tints to tbe 
petals of flowers, and coloring the globules of the 
blood of man and other warm blooded animals. 
It is powerfully tonic as a medicine; it raises the 
pulse, promotes the secretions, and imparts tone 
to the system. Ii is one of the mineral ingredi- 
ents in the mineral waters of Saratoga, and of 
course adds greatly to the tonic powers of the 
springs. 

Professor Emmons discovered phosphate of 
iron in the water of the Empire spriufr. This 
ferruginous salt is an important medicine when 
prepared by the chemist. 

Hydriod'ite of Polassa. — Iodine was first disco- 
vered by Courtois, a manufactm-er of saltpeter in 
Paris, in the mother water of sea-weeds. As a 
medicine, it has been very much used since 1812, 
and at tlie present time is variously compounded 
and enters largely into the list of the most im- 
portant prescriptions of modern times. This 
substance was discovered in the water of the 
Congress spring, by Dr. William Usher, and his 
discovery was published in the American Journal, 
No. 1, Vol. 15. 

Dr. John H. Steel detected iodine in all the 
Saratoga waters in the year 1828, and in 1829 
published the fact in the tollowing volume of the 
same journal. It excites, strongly, the glandular 
system, and possesses great alterative power. It 
exists largely in the Saratoga waters, as they con- 
tain even more grains per gallon than the cele- 
brated baths of Lugol. 

Bromine was discovered by Bolard of Montpe- 
lier, in France, while experimenting on the water 
of ponds, and from its unpleasant odor he called 
it bromine. It has been used as a medicine since 



60 

1829. Like iodine, it is found to exist quite uni- 
formly in sea water and in salt springs, both in 
Europe and America. In America, it was first 
discovered by Professor Silliriian of New Haven, 
in water of ilie salt s|)rings of Salina, Onondaga 
count}', N. Y., and in tlie mineral waters of Sara- 
toga, by A. A. Hays of Connecticut. Its action 
on the animal system is nearly the same as iodine, 
and niay be in some cases substituted lor it; but, 
as it is a more active remedy, it is not so gene- 
rally used. 

The foregoing list of minerals, which exist in 
the waters of Saratoga, are among the most im- 
portant and most active of our medical agents; 
and i)erhaps there is not on) of the nmnber 
which does not enter into the daily prescripiions 
of every jthysician in full practice, whether in 
the city or country. And in the practice of 
medicine, these substances are rarely, if ever, 
prescribed alone, but must be either artificially 
mixed or variously combined with other sub- 
stances. The combinations so formed must vary 
at times from the nature of the case; whereas 
these waters, as in all natural combinations, have 
a uniformity so constant that results may be ex- 
actly calculated and depended upon. 

Hence, doubtless, if the mineral waters of Sara- 
toga were administered with the same care which 
is generally allowed to be necessary in the admin- 
istration of artificial compounds, the benefit of 
them would be greatly increased. One of the 
errors which is daily committed in their use is 
the excessive quantity in which they are taken. 
Permanent injury is often done in cases where, 
if properly used, they would be attended with 
most salutary effects. 

Carbonic Acid has more volume than any other 



61 

mineral found in the springs of S.^l•a toga, and it is 
more generally diffused than any other mineral siih- 
stance known to science. No hight of the atmos- 
phere has failed to give evidence of its presence, 
when it has been subjected to appropriate tests; 
no depths of the earth which have been unfolded 
to man, have failed to present this peculiar mine- 
ral either in a free or combined state, and the 
rocks found most universally on the surface of 
the earth are carbonate of lime. 

Vegetables can not grow without it, and the ani- 
mal kingdom is equally dependent on its presence. 

It has been called " gas of wine," because found 
in this fluid. It was at one time named "cboak 
damp," because it produces spasms of the glottis 
when attempts are made to inhale it. One chem- 
ist, having disengaged it from a piece of chalk, 
calls it cretacious air;" another detects it in 
every portion of the atmosphere, and he names 
it " aerial acid." And, finally, the analytical chem- 
ist separates it into its constituent parrs, and 
demonstrates its cheniical composition to consist 
by volume of one part carbon and one part oxy- 
gen gas. This philosopher, therefore, desiirnates 
it carbonic acid, and by this name the chemist 
knows it at the present day. 

This gas is pleasant to the t^ste, slightly pungent, 
imparting an agreeable flavor. It has a healthful 
influence when received into the stomach by taking 
the place of other acids, and changing the chemi- 
cal compounds which are the result of itnpaired 
diirestion. It acts chemically when it corrects the 
acids and gases which result from indigestion, 
and as a sedative when it allays the nausea and 
vomiting which attend irritation of the organ. 

This gas is inspirable, producing spasnodic 
contractions of the glottis; even when it is inhaled 
6 



62 

with atmosphere in the proportion of one part of 
gas to nine of air, it becomes a narcotic poison by 
producinj? stupor, insensibility and death. 

'r[ie mineral springs of Saratoga produce large 
quantities of this gas, and the tubes are always 
rilled with it above the water, and experiments 
upon animal life may at any time be made here. 
This gas imparts the sparkling, lively appearance 
to champagne, beer, cider and the soda water of 
the sho[)S. 

Its effects on irritable mucus surfaces have been 
noticeable and very beneficial. Professor Moyon 
of Geneva, Switserland, used it in a case of dys- 
menorrhea with the most soothing effects. 

Combined with water, it forms a grateful drink 
to febrile patients, allaying thirst, lessening nausea, 
gastric irritation, and increasing the secretions of 
urine. It has been prescribed for gravel and 
urinary calculi with good results. 

Its specifiic gravity is 1,521. This quality of 
the mineral, favors its accumulation in caverns, 
wells and other low situations near which it is 
generated, if unoccupied by water. Its ])resence 
in such j)laces may, as is well known, be detected 
by lowering a lighted taper, which in this gas 
will expire immediately. 

Water under the pressure of the atmosphere 
holds one volume of this gas in solution, and if 
the pressure is increased, the quantity of the 
mineral is correspondingly accumidated ; and on 
again diminishing the pressure to that only of the 
atniosphere, the gas escapes with active effer- 
vescence. 

The mineral water at this place holds more 
than one volume of carbonic acid in solution. It 
therefore must have been subject to a pressure 
greater than that of the atmosphere, and on rising 



63 

to the surface of the ground, tliis extra pressure 
is removed and the gas escapes, giving a simmer- 
ing or a boihng motion to the surliace of the water 
in the spring. 

ill the year 1823 Faraday subjected carbonic 
acid to the pressure of thirty-six atmospheres, and 
a fluid was produced. This hquid gas is also 
colorless and exceedingly mobih?, having a s|)e- 
cific gravity of 0.83 at the temperature of 32° 
Fahr. And in 1836 Thilosier solidified it by 
taking advantage of the cold which was generated 
by the sudden gasefaction of the liquid acid. 
When a solid it is a white, filamentous body, 
something like asbestus. This gas is soluble in 
ether; and by the evaporation of this solution, the 
most intense cold, viz: 1(50° Fahr. has been ob- 
tained. Carbonic acid gas is very sensibly affect- 
ed by heat, so that the temperature wliich would 
increase the volu ne of air ouc3, will increase that 
of carbonic acid fourfold. 

When this mineral is dissolved in water it very 
much increases the solvent powers of that men- 
struum, enabling it to take uj) and hold in solution, 
lirne, magnesia and iron, in greatly increased 
quantities; hence the variety of constituents in 
tlie mineral fountains of Saratoga. And if one 
ounce of the mineral water be evaporated, salts 
will be precipitated which would not be re-dis- 
solved by gallons of common rain water.* 

'J'he presence of this gas in tie mineral water 
of Saratoga increases its solvency about one third. 
Ihe phenofuetion of the High Rock Spring will 
be seen to illustrate this fact. 

Besides the sources already mentioned from 
which this gas is derived, as the atmos|)here, 
combustion, growth and slow decomposition of 
vegetables, decomposition of calcareous rock, fer- 

*Seepage41. 



64 

mentation of saccharine matter; it is also a result 
of volcanic action. This gas is also evolved in 
great quantities from all the mineral springs lying 
along this mineral range. 

That an immense amount of gas is contained 
in these s|)rings is obvious. That it is freely im- 
parted by them as soon as they are subject to the 
pressurs of the atmosphere only, is equally well 
known. But the great question wiiich has thus 
far been, and perhaps may long be unanswered^ 
still remains — By what process, and at what 
depths in the earth's crust have they become thus 
freely charged? 

Water, next to atmospheric air, is the most 
abundant and most generally diffused fluid in 
nature. 

Its solvent power is such, that it is rarely found 
pur3. As it expands into vapor by the influence 
of heat, it rises into the air, where it comes in 
contact with oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid and 
ammoniacal salts. There it dissolves, and when 
the vapor condenses into rain, hail or snow, it 
still holds these in solution and returns them to 
the ground. These substances are thus particu- 
larly well prepared for food for])lants; and hence 
the invigoration and rai)id growth of vegetation 
which invariably follows gentle fulls of rain and 
snow in the late spring. And so obvious is this 
effect even of a late snow, upon the growth of 
vegetation, that farmers have called it the '* poor 
man's manure." It is tolerably well understood 
that the artificial irrigation of plants does not pro- 
duce results, nearly so desirable, and hence we 
are led to the supposition, at least, that water 
holds its combinations in a manner quite different 
whether fallinfif in showers, running in springs or 
standing quietly in vessels; though it may be 



65 

true, as has sometimes been supposed, that these 
combinations are in each instance the same, in 
kind and proportion.* 

When the water percolates the soil or runs deep 
amongst the rocks which compose the crust of 
the earth, it comes in contact with a great variety 
of minerals', acids, alkalies and fossils, dissolving 
a portion of each. These substances are thus 
conveyed in solution to the ocean, when the water 
is evaporated, and the salts are precipitated. 

In this way a constant increase of earths, mine- 
rals and salts is taking place in the great reser- 
voirs of the globe. 

Thus, perhaps, have been excavated the large 
caves common in limestone formations, Ihe 
water having always more or less carbonic acid 
in solution becomes an active solvent of lime, and 
when brought in contact with it, takes it up from 
the surface of the rock, thence it flows off; but if 
the temperature should be raised the lime is pre- 
cipitated; hence the stalactites, stalagmites, &c., 
so abundant in these localities. 

When water percolating the surface of the earth, 
meets some impervious stratum, it is accumulated 
upon it until it rises to such a level as to find an 
outlet. This outlet is called a spring. 

When springs differ from ordinary water in 
containing a larger proportion of saline ingre- 
dients, with various gases in greater or less 
quantities, they are called mineral springs. 

By acidulous or carbonated springs, we mean 
those fountains which are charged with carbonic 
acid. They have a peculiar, s|)arkling and ex- 
hilerating effect, and contain always some alka- 
line carbonate as one of the constituents. 

* The changes which take place in the character of the boIu- 
tionsof water under ditferent circumstances, might become a 
subject of curious inquiry. 



To this class of mineral springs belong the 
well-known fountains of Saratoga. This kind of 
mineral water is not very conimon, atui in the 
frJtate of New York, will he ni'iinly found in the 
mineral range already described* in this work. 



CHAPTER V. 

Evacnant. — As a general evacuant in cases of 
long standing dehiliiy and depraved general 
health, J know of no other remedy, either simple 
or compound, which can he compared with these 
mineral waters, if judiciously used and persevered 
in. 

As a cathartic they are pleasant to the taste, 
grateful to the stomach, efficient as an evacuant, 
while they leave the alimentary canal stronger and 
its iunciions more vigorous. Patients whose di- 
gestive organs have been impaired by disease, 
enfeebled by excess, or exhausted by the toil of 
accumulated years, lind in them an agent which 
will relieve the organs, without first increasing 
the existing debility. When taken in the morn- 
ing upon an empty stomach, in a potation irom 
half a pint to three pints, a full and copious dejec- 
tion soon takes place; unloading the wliole length 
of the digestive tube of the remnants of the pre- 
vious day's ingesta, which is no farther use to tlie 
sys'em, but on the co'itrary, may be the source of 
much harm. This free evacuation is copious 
without pain, and leaves the diaestive tube at 
perfect freedom to exert its digestive and assimi- 
lating {)owers on the next portion of food pre- 
sented to it. 
* See page 31. 



67 

And altlioiigh the dejections are free, and in 
many instances most copious, yet no langor or de- 
bility is experienced by the pati ^it, but on the 
contrary, his appetiie is increased for the next 
meal. h)ven the digestive functions are greatly 
improved, tiie power of assimilation and nutrition 
is increased, additional strength is imparted to 
the body, and as a consequence, new and in- 
creased vigor to the mind. 

Diuretic — As a Diuretic they are no less happy 
in their results, in cases proper for their use, than 
as a cathartic. For their action on the kidneys 
and the general venal secrectiona is prompt, cer- 
tain, uniform and efficient. But they must be 
difterently administered when diuretic effects are 
to be ol)tained; the quantity taken at a time 
should be 1 \ss atid repented at shorter intervals, 
and if possible drank fresh from the fountain. 

Diaphoretic. — As a diaphoretic they are equally 
successful as an evacuant. And very many cuta- 
neous diseases find ready relief from an alterative 
course of them. In the case of those who have 
resorted here lor relief, and have come under my 
personal observation, a very large proportion of 
them have liad an exceedingly bad lunctional 
state of the skin; and oftener than otherwise, if 
there had been any error committed by their me- 
dical adviser at iiome, it had been in not suf- 
ficiently regarding this great depurating organ, 
'j'he bowels had been purged, the functions of 
the kidneys inquired after; but those of the skin 
ha 1 never heen thought of either by the patient 
or his pliysician, and tliis neglect sometimes even 
to the lack of ordinary cleanliness. 

In this connection 1 wish to correct what seems 



68 

to me to be an error in the minds of many peo- 
ple, viz: that physic will cure coiistii)atiou of the 
bowels, and that a very free state of the first pass- 
ages is necessary to health and comfort. Now, 
both of these positions are undoubtedly wrong. 
Physic is an evil, and is to be taken as a choice 
of evils when taken at all. It must interfere with 
digestion, and h11 the legitimate functions of the 
digestive and assimilative organs, by exhausting 
to a greater or less degree the vital i)owers of 
these important organs; and they are therefore 
less qualified to prepare nutriment for the indi- 
vidual. A free state of the bowels is an unnatural 
state of the organs, and the food passes from the 
digestive tube before the absorbents have had 
time to take up ihe nutriment. And a majority 
of mineral water drinkers physic themselves too 
much. A healthy action of the bowels is all that 
is required. And all extremes are to be avoided. 
Constipation is only to be cured by cliecking those 
functions which are in excess, and properly cor- 
recting the secretions and stimulating the muscles 
of the bowels. A relaxed state of the bowels is to 
be remedied by increasing the secretions of the 
kidneys and the skin, and regulating the diet. 

Bullous Diseases. — In those cases where the 
liver is making bile unhealthy in quality or quan- 
tity, and without organic lesion being present in 
the viscus, these waters, used as a cathartic in the 
morning, with such assistance over night as the 
case may require, produce the most happy results. 
But if a higher grade of arterial action is present, 
or if organic lesion has taken place, and a dropsi- 
cal state of the lower extremities has supervened, 
then they are injurious without an exception. But 
it must be remembered, that extensive swellings 



may take place from a great variety of causes be- 
sides organic disease, which may be reheved 
with great facility by a proper and timely use of 
these mineral waters. 

In a pas.sive state of the bawels, when an eva- 
cuation is not obtained save at the expense of 
much time, or large doses of active medicines, 
with clay colored stools and a dry and rough 
state of the skin, the cathartic mineral waters, if 
taken in the mornn)g an hour or two before 
breakfast, in proper quantities tor physic, and in 
smaller portions through the day, to operate on 
the kidneys, skin and liver, will in a few days re- 
gulate the system most perfectly. But in bilious 
difficulties of the above description, much relief 
may be obtained by proper and timely bathing. 
These baths should be of mineral water generally, 
and used in the form of a shower bath, about ten 
or eleven o'clock in the morning. After the bath 
has been indulged in, it is important that the pa- 
tient should be carefully wiped dry, and the fric- 
tion on the surface continued with a coarse towel 
or a flesh brush, until tlie skin is warm and gene- 
rally flushed. This rubbing should in most in- 
stances be done by the patient himself, for the 
circulation is thereby more effectually thrown 
upon the surface, and the conjestion of the inter- 
nal organ more promptly relieved. In some of 
the above cases, I have known such an active 
slate of the kidneys or skin to exist, that almost 
all the fluids of every description which the sys- 
tem could receive, would be passed directly from 
the body by the agency of the venal organs, or 
the pores of the skin. And notwithstanding large 
quantities of mineral water had been taken by the 
patient, yet his constipation would continue to be 



70 

the torpidity of the bowels so much the more 
ajrgravated ; the long and unpleasant train of mor- 
bid actions incident to an excessive secretion of 
the kidneys or of the skin, also superadded to his 
former sufferings. l)y the very course resorted to 
for relief Tliis state of the system is easily over- 
come by proper medicine taken over night, fol- 
lowed in the morning by cathartic water, tojiether 
with bathing and friction of the skin. In other 
cases again, there may be a little general excite- 
ment, which will be so much enhanced by the 
carbonic acid, that it becomes necessary to ex- 
pel it b'^fore the water is taken. This is usually 
accomplislied by setting the water in the lodging 
room over night, or by immersing it in warm 
water in the morninor just before using it: this 
will expel the gas and insure the cathartic effect. 

iterative Use of the Water. — When the cathartic 
effects are obtained from the use of the water, 
many people seem to think the work is completed, 
and they of course expect to be well, when in 
truth they have taken but one step on the way 
towards a permanent cure. They have by an 
anticeptic physic, evacuated the first passages of 
ill prepared faculent m;Uter. But the water has 
passed through the l)owels, and scarcely any of 
it has entered into the system f)roper, or passed 
the secreting organs and become a part of the 
circulating fluids of the body, or combined with 
their nutriment. This is oidy to be done by small 
]>otations taken repeatedly through the day; and 
in most instances these draughts should be taken 
from the more tonic springs, as the Columbian, 
]Iamilton, and the High Rock fountains. 

Ihe quantity of water taken in this way shoidd 
be small at first, say a gill or half a pint, to deli- 



71 

cate females and others in proportion, and shoidd 
be repeated every three or four hours throughout 
the day, and gradually increased in quantity until 
the maximum amount the syste»n can dioj.ose of 
properly, has b^en taken by the patient. In this 
way an alterative course is obtained, which niay 
change the whole secretions of the body, a very 
important point to be obtained in most cases 
of disease. 

These small alterative potations should be 
drank at the fountains, where the water is as 
perfect as it is possible to obtain it. 

Gravel. — In gravelly states of the kidneys and 
the bladder, many well attested cases mfght be 
produced, where the patients have been cured by 
the waters from these mineral springs. They 
should be drank in such quantities, and with 
such repetition as to insure a copious diuretic 
effect, when larere quantities of sand, and fre- 
quently small calculic will be discharged with 
the urine. This result is fiequently much assisted 
by the use of the warm bath, which in a large 
part of the cases, will increase the secretions of 
the kidneys. And even in cases where there was 
evidently organic lesion of the bladder present, 
the free use of the mineral water seemed to fur- 
nish more relief than any other remedy which 
had been used, although the patient had been 
subject to the directions of the first medical men. 

Chronic Rheumatism. — This formidable disease 
has been repeatedly cured by a liberal use of the 
water taken as a cathartic in the morning, as an 
alterative through the day, and externally applied 
in the form of a shower bath, cold and fresh from 
one of the mineral fountains. 



72 

Phagedenic Sores. — In ill conditioned ulcers of 
the above character, these mineral wafers have 
been Ibund very beneficial, and are to be internally 
and externally a|)i)lied. The external a[)|)lication, 
both general and local, should be prescribed, when 
in a short time the ulcers will change their 
aspect and begin to heal. 

Cuianeons Diseases. — Diseases of the skin are 
very numerous, and some of them are difficult to 
treat in ordinary practice. But all those which 
depend on an acid state of the secretions, and 
which have been controlable by an alkaline treat- 
ment, are happily treated by the mineral water. 
These cases require the fluids of the body to be 
saturated with the mineral water, and also the 
daily application of the bath. Papulous diseases 
involving the whole surlhce of the body, are per- 
fectly cured during one season by the use of 
these mineral waters. 

Scrofula. — This state of the system finds great 
relief from the use of the mineral waters of Sara- 
toga. Those laboring under it should drink the 
water in the morning as an aperient, take it as an 
alterative through the day, and b:ithe regularly 
once during every twenty-four hours, uidess some 
particular reason for the contrary, should exist. 
In these cases, the external application is highly 
important. Iodine and the Bromine occur in 
sufficient quantities in these waters, sensibly to 
effijct such cases, when applied generally to the 
surface, and in amount even equal to the quantity 
use<! in baths with so much success in the South 
of Europe. 

The temperature and frequency of the baths in 
these diseases, must depend upon the general 



73 

health of the patient, the state of the weather, and 
the season of the year when they are used. 

Chlorosis.— Th\9 disease, and many other kind- 
red difficulties, nre readily re in(f\'ed by a jiidicions 
course of drinkiti^ and bathincr in these njuieral 
waters. But 1 have known some patients njiich 
injured by attempting to practice a course of diet, 
medicine and exercise, according to some popular 
direction, which may be very proper in other 
cases, but not necessary in all— as tor instance, 
early rising, long walks, deep draughts o cold 
water; and all this is to be accomplished before 
breakfast by females, who tor years have not risen 
in the morning until the breakfast hour; never 
have been accustomed to walk any considerable 
di^tan teat any time in the tw -nty-four hours; and 
whose stomachs are extremely iriitalde, and their 
general health feeble. For such patients to leave 
a warm bed, subject themselves to the difTerence 
ot temi)eraiure between it and the morning air 
about the fountain, and drench their stoinacha 
with lar"e portions of cold mineral water, then 
return t^rthe hotel, and add to all the rest a full 
meal ot stinuilating food, must be a hurttul,if it be 
not a dangerous experiment. 

By these remarks, I am not to be understood 
as being opposed to early rising, exercising 
in the morning air, and drinking the water 
at the several fountains; but I mean to be 
understood as saying, that all persons who 
visit these springs in i)ursuit of health, can not 
rise at the same hour in the morning; take a walk 
of the same length; driik the same number of 
tumblers of cold mineral water; and eat the same 
kind of food, and to the same extent, with pre- 
cisely the same results. I mean that every person s 
7 



74 

exercise should be measured by liis nbility; his 
food, by his power to diiiest and asisirnilate; that 
his rjjiing in the iiioniiMfr, an J tlie arnoimt of 
water drank; where and at what ternperatiire, 
sliould de[)end on the elTecis produced, rather 
tliaii the popular opinion ot'<:ood, wise or fashion- 
able individuals, who have "known all aliout the 
water," because they have been here before, once 
or ot'iencr, and have drank it by "rule." 

Phthisis. — Much as has been said of late, about 
the effects of the mineral water of Saratoga in 
this disease, I have yet to learn that the} have 
ever been of use in well marked cases of this 
kind. And from those who have thought and 
writteji to the contrary, 1 must beg most respect- 
fully to difier. 1 have never seen a case, where 1 
thought there was even a shade of palliation pro- 
duced l)y the use of the water, but on tiie contrary 
it has been always injurious, increasing all the 
alarming symptoms of this most iormidahle 
disease. 

I have also known many coughs and pains 
about the })ectoral regions, niost promptly and 
effectually cured by drinking tlip mineral waters; 
but the cough and the i)ains in the chest, were 
dependent upon a diseased action in one or more 
of die digestive and assimilating organs, and not 
on that patholoLMCtd slate of the lungs, which is 
phthisis pulmonalis. JNly advice to all who are 
laboring under this disease, is, not to drink of any 
one of our mineral springs recently or remotely 
discovered and brouglit into notice. 

Diseases peculiar to the south and western 
states, and which are caused by miasma, are niuch 
relieved by a few weeks' sojourn at the springs. 
The stimulating and dry atmosphere of Saratoga 



75 

county, is well calculated to remove diseases which 
occur ill the damp m'asmetic fliriiaies which pre- 
vail along the seahoard, and the lakes and rivers 
of the west and south A^est-n'n states. And the 
morhid condition of the digestive organs, which is 
so freq'ient an attendant on hilions diseases, is 
often removed l)y the use of the mineral water of 
Saratoga. It acts powerfully on the secretions 
ofthe liver, and the skin and kidneys. It improves 
the appetite, the digestion, and the nutriiion of 
this class of patients. 

Another class of patients which are very much 
benefited here, are tho.^e who have by too close 
and protracted application to husiness, over-taxed 
the brain and nervous system. 'J'his cla^^s of 
paLierus can spend a few weeks at Saratoga, and 
be speedily relieved from their anxious cares and 
lahors without l)ecoming impatient of their want 
of emj)loyment. The day passes, and the week 
is even gone, aiul they can scarcely accoimt for 
it. Their time has hei^n completely occupied, and 
yet they have ha<l no particular husiiie>s on hand 
at any hour. While the cause which produced 
their indisj)osition is removed, n.iture, aided by 
the wholesome atmor!|)here, the medical (pialities 
of the mineral waters, and the congenial iViends 
who surround them, restores them unconsciously 
to health. 

Drinking the TFaters in the Winter. — Although it 
has been the custom for half a century j)ast, to iise 
these mineral waters as a medicine during the 
warm season of the year, yet hut few compara- 
tively, have been induced to remain here during 
the colder portions of the year, to use the water as 
a remedial agent; hut long experience has most 
clearly established the fact, that they may be used 



76 ' 

with nearly as much promise of success in the win- 
ter ns at any other season of the year. It is true, 
that July and August are ihe fashionable months at 
Sarato;yr'i» ai'd nmny who reside in the lar^e cities 
being compelled by the sickly season at home, to 
remove into the country for safety, make choice 
of these months. It is also an interval from 
active business, which is an additional reason for 
their making their annual tours for pleasure and 
health at this time. But a large proportion of inva- 
lids, are not restricted by any fucIi relations as 
the above, and might come in the cold weather as 
well as the warm, if they were aware of the prac- 
ticability of using the water during the Winter, 
Sjiring and Autumn. 

We have never been able to detect any differ- 
ence in the temperature, specific gravity or 
mineral composition of the waters, durij)g the 
winter months. They have their origin so deep 
in the earth, and so remote from the circulating 
currents of Iresh water on the surface, that the 
fall and spring rains do not affect them in the 
•least. The waters, therefore, are as medicinal 
during the three quarters of the year when they 
have not been used, as they are during the one 
quarter in which they have been applied. And 
those who have used them during the winter with 
marked success, practically confirm the above 
conclusions. And were 1 called upon for some 
of the most striking instances of relief obtained 
by drinking the waters, I should refer to cases 
treated in the winter season, as among the most 
prominent. And no distinction need be made, 
gave with those who can not endure the exposure 
of their journey. It would be quite as plausible 
for an invalid to say that he couhl not apply other 
remedial agents in the winter, because the relief 



77 

was not as prompt and efficient as when used in 
tlip summer. The cases in which the water is ap- 
pHcahle, are the same, or very nearly the same in 
the winter as in the summer. 

Constipation. — This difficulty arises from a 
variety of causes, as dehility, viciated or deficient 
secretions, sedentary habirs, a want of muscular 
power in the intestinal tube, morbid condition of 
tlie brain, chronic inflammation of the bowels, 
irritation of the abdominal nerves, a redundant 
secretion of the kidneys or the skin, and a mor- 
bid state ot the liver, are some of the more 
common causes of constipated bowels. One 
other cause, perhaps, 1 ought to mention in this 
connection, viz: too close and protracted applica- 
tion to business. Constipations from the above 
cause, are to be met with daily during the summer 
seasons at Saratoga. All of which are happily 
met by a few weeks' use of Saratoga mineral 
waters, absence of cai'esand change of air, &.c. 

Cathartic. — The mineral waters of this place are 
among the most pleasant, efficient and appropri- 
ate cathartic medicines now in use. Three pints 
of the water may be taken lasting, and the pa- 
tient's relish for his breakfast will be increased. 
The effect of the water after the meal will be 
prompt, full and complete. And the languor 
which so uniformly attends the operation of 
ordinary cathartic, does not follow the operation 
of the water. Tlie carbonic acid, by its sedative 
effects, prevents those griping pains which so 
uniforndy accompany the operations of ordinary 
medicine of this class. These properties of the 
water render it a most valuable remedy in de- 
bilitated stomachs and bowels. 



78 

•/?5 a diuretic, tlieir action is equally prompt. 
This effect is produced by taking the water in less 
quantities. From half a pint to a pint taken 
every lour or six hours, is a proper dose for this 
purpose. 

^s a diaphoretic it is very active under given 
circumstances. Half pint doses, while in a 
warm bath, or soon followed by a batli, will 
produce diaphoresis. Thus emj)loyed in a great 
variety of diseases of the skin, it has been 
attended with the happiest effects. The acid 
state of the system, which is uniformly pre- 
sent in scaly, and paj)ulous conditions of this 
great organ, is met by the water better tlian by 
any other prescription which I have been able to 
make. It removes from the system all the acids 
on which the disease depends, and allays the 
burning, itching and irritation whicli result from 
the morbid activity of the skin and mucus 
membrane. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Bathins; means the immersion of the body, or 
a part of it, for a medicinal purpose in a medium 
different from that which commonly surroimds it. 
The medicine in general use is either water, or 
water liolding medicinal substances in solution. 
One of the most important things in a bath is its 
teniperature. This ranges generally betwenn 
33° and 123° Fahrenheit. A bath can not be 
iif?ed much lower tf an 33°, for an obvious reason, 
nor can a higher temperatin-e than 123° be em- 
ployed with a probability of a medicinal effect. 



79 

For the purpose of practically arranging the 
tenij)eratiire, Dr. Forbes has graduated it as fol- 
lows: a cold bath ranging Irom 33° to 60°, 
Fhhr. A cool bath, from 60° to 75°, A tcmjierale 
bath from 75° to 85°. A tepid bath, \\6m 85° to 
90°. A warm bath, from 92° to 98°, and a hot 
bath, from 98° to 112°. 

When water of a low temperature is for a 
moment applied to the body, a shock ensues, but 
this is soon followed by a pleasant reaction. But 
if th'3 immersion is continued for any considera- 
ble length of time, and the temperature of the 
surface again diminished, then a sensation of 
actual cold, pern)anent tremors, and shudderings 
eufue ; the extremities are benundied, the person 
becomes languid, exhausted and finally powerless. 
No glow succeeds this second chill. The fice 
becomes shrunken, the extremities din inish in 
size, so that rings will frequently fill from the 
lingers, 'i'he pulse becomes small, and less 
frequent than natural, a feeling of oppiession 
extends across the chest, and the venal secretions 
are increased. If a person lea\es the bath before 
the accession of the second chill or quite soon 
after he will have a glow in ten or fifteen minutes, 
or, even in less tiuie the blood returns to the 
surface, the extremities recover their size, the 
stricture across the chest passes off, and a feeling 
of buo\ancy ensues, with increased animal 
strenj^lh. 

'I he prominent features to be noticed in the 
eflffcts above mentioned are the shock, and ihe 
reaction. The chdl may be so considerable, 
owing to a previously relaxed state of the system 
as that the shock may result in death. The fluids 
of the body recede from the surface in conse- 
quence of the torpor of the nervous system, and 



80 

hence the shrinkingrof the capillaries, which force 
the hloofl back to the interior of the body, into the 
substaiice of the lar«re viscera as the lungs, liver, 
&c. In the readorii j)rocess, the overloaded 
viscera are powerfully aroused by their crowded 
state, and the muscles ot the [)arts are pyrn[)a- 
thelically excited, as well as ihe nervous system; 
increased heat Ibllows; and the fluids are returned 
to the surface, and the deranged functions ara 
restored to order. 

From the above statement, it will be seen 
that the effects of the cold hath are varied by 
many circutnstances; particularly greater or les3 
vigor, or high or low temperature of the system; 
hence the patient might be strengthened or 
weakened, benefited or injured by it. Arid hence, 
too, the different o[)inions of physicians on the 
subject. One will call it a sedative, his triend 
will call it a stimulant, wliile another calls it a 
tonic. We know the cold is sedative, and if its 
continuance is sufficiently })roiracted, it will 
surely etid in death. But when the cold bath is 
used in a proper time and manner, it acts as a 
tonic of the first class. 

When the shock is the only object of the bath, 
the water should be used at a low temperature, 
applied with force and suddenness, and for a 
short space of time. The patient should be 
plunged into a bath, and immediately withdrawn. 
Swooning and hysteria are cases where the shock 
is the only effect to be produced. The same ap- 
plication might be made in cases of mercurial 
patients. 

Refrigeration. — To obtain this result the water 
should be but a little below the temperature of 
the body, but in continual contact with it until the 



81 

effect 18 produced. In symptomatic fever, result- 
ing from inflammation of one of the viscera, this 
form of apphcation is contra-indicated, and unless 
used wiili great caution will he attended with ex- 
treme danger; hut in cases of idiopathic fever aa 
the corntnon, continued, or ty|)lnis fever, the water 
should he constantly applied hy a sponge and at 
a temperature but little below the heat of the body. 

Reaction. — All other things being equal, is in 
proportion to the cold. A sudden immersion pro- 
duces a greater reaction than a gradual one, a 
plunge from a hioht produces greater reaction 
than a sitnple dip, however rapidly performed, and 
the water falling from a great hight on the body 
has more effect than water of the same tempera- 
ture applied as in ahUnion. Within certain limits, 
that is, within any period short of that at which 
healthy reaction ceases, the amount of the reac- 
tion will be proportioned to the degree of refrig- 
eration. The reaction will be in proportion to 
the heat of the surface at the time of taking 
the bath, allowing always for individual peculiari- 
ties of habit. Cool skin or cold extremities are 
not a proper condition to warrant the use of the 
cold bath. But the skin should be warm, the cir- 
culation should be vigorous in the extremities, 
before entering the cold bath. Reaction is more 
certainly produced when the bath is accompanied 
by muscular action, and hence, a person swim- 
niitiff obtains a better glow, and a more tonic eflTect 
than he woidd, if he were simply immersed in a 
bath and continued in a state of repose. 

Whatever prevents the surface of the body 
from falling below the proper degree of heat, or 
directly stimulates the skin, or excites the circula- 
tion, will proportionately increase the reaction. 



82 

To insure this increased reaction we see the im- 
portance of speedily drying the body afterward, 
Ijy sironff and vigorous friction, and sometimes it 
may be necessary to use warm and stimulating 
drinks, or active bodily exercise. Unless the j^ro- 
per amount of reaction is secured the bath may 
be followed l)y increased coldness of the surface, 
and a congestion of some internal organ. The 
best time in the tvventy-ibur hours for a tonic bath 
is on rising, when the system has been refreshed 
by a night's repose. Tlie nutritive organs have 
tlien been active in invigorating, and re[)airing 
the body, and as there is more recuperative energy, 
the reacting princi|)le will be the more perfect. 
The next best time is about three or four hours 
after breakfast. And in case the mineral water 
is to be drank perha[)S this hour may be allowed 
instead of the early morning, but the physical 
exercise should be very light, and if the skin is 
at all moist, it should be well dried before enter- 
ing the bath. The mode of entering the bath and 
the length of time to retnain in it, must be regu- 
lated by the shock, the reaction and the second 
chill, as above described. From five to ten 
minutes is a medium time to remain in the bath, 
and while in the water the limbs should be kept 
in motion. On leaving tliebath, the body should 
be dried as soon as possible with a dry towel, and 
then chafed with a coarse one until a tlioronj^h 
reaction is produced, and a pleasant glow flushes 
the whole body. If a headache ensue, cold ap- 
plications to the head would natin-ally suggest 
thf^mt-elves. But with the above mentioned pre- 
cautions, happy results will usually follow. These 
baths may be repeated daily, or every second day, 
according to the effect f)rodnced on the patient. 
The greatest danger generally arises from staying 
too lonix in the bath. 



83 

Shown Baih. — This bath differs from the plung« 
in ])rodncing a greater shock particularly if tlie 
quantity of water is »reat, its teu)[)erature low, 
and its fall considerable. In a shower bath, the 
person is surrounded by the atmos[)liere, whereas 
in a plunge bath, the body is surrounded by a 
menstruutn much more dense than the atmos- 
phere, the precordial distress will hence be 
greater than in the plunge bath. In case of full- 
ness, and pain about the head the shower bath is 
preferable to the plunge, inasmuch as the cold and 
the shock are a{)plied directly, and at first, to the 
head. In case of extreme pains about the head, 
the feet may be put into hot water, while the cold 
shower falls upon the head, and thus the circula- 
tion is more speedily restored. A ccmmon 
bathing tub with a fixture for a shower bath ])lac- 
ed over it, answers a good purpose for this kind 
of bath. 

Sponge Baths very nearly resemble in their 
effects the shower bath. They are accompanied 
by a less shock and therefore less reaction. The 
daily and free application of the water to the head, 
neck and chest on rising, is one of the simplest 
and siuest tonics we possess, and is the best 
means of hardening the system against atmos- 
pheric changes and preventing that unfortunate 
habit of ^^ always taking cold^ This class of 
persons should be particular to bathe their feet, 
for their extremities are most of the time wet 
with a morbid perspiration. 

The douse or douche is a small stream of water 
directed with considerable force from a tube upon 
some part of the body. This bath varies in effect 



84 

nccording to the diameter of the stream, the tem- 
perature of the water, and the force with which 
it is thrown Uj)on the hody. This is an agent of 
great power, owinj; to the incessant and rapid 
change of the j)articles of the fluid applied to the 
part to be affected. It niay he used with great 
advantage in local inflammation. 

The hip and foot baths are but so many local 
baths. The former is employed in diseases of 
the pelvic viscera, and the latter to the lower 
extremities. 

While upon the subject, it might be well to 
name some of the morbid conditions in which the 
cold bathing has been found to exert a thorough 
medicinal effect. It is generally ap[)licab!e to 
youth and middle age. In infmcy and old age it 
must be used with grdt caution. In casds of 
general debility, as in strumous habit, the cold 
bath carefully applied, is followed by the hap- 
piest effects. When the skin is relaxed and flabby 
and there is a great tendency to perspiration, or 
to a cold claminy exudation, the cold saline bath is 
especially indicated. And again when this state of 
the skin is accotnpanied by a catarrhal disease, 
the tonic cold bath is especially valuable, as also 
in nervous diseases, as chorea hysteria and some 
cases of epilepsy, also in the loss of certain fmic- 
lions, as the voice, smell, taste, &c., local paralysis, 
unaccompanied by organic disease of the brain; 
in cases of nervous dyspepsia, unattended by in- 
flammation of the gastrointestinal-mucus mem- 
brane. And in the intervals of asthma, where the 
system is in a situation to produce the reaction. 

Temperate bath is 75° to 85°. The effects of 
this bath on the system, are of precisely the same 



85 

kind as those of the cold bath, but less in deo^ree. 
It is applicable to a different class of cases from 
those for which ihe cold bith should be used. 
Persons not strong, those who have an instinctive 
shrinking from the apphcation of cold water, and 
when danger might result to some internal organ, 
as in cases of orgaiic diseases of the heart, or a 
tendency to internal congestion, or when there is 
sensitiveness of the nervous system; in either of 
these instances this bath is to be substituted for 
the cold. The shock and the reaction are intend- 
ed to be the same thing in kind, but simply 
different in degree. 

Warm Bath.-^-TUe immediate effect of the 
warm bath is generally the opposite of the cold. 
The first impression of the warm bath is g-ateful, 
the whole nervous system is soothed and a gentle 
languor steals over the mind. Slight pains, 
spasms and irritations are removed, and general 
irritation is not unfrequenlly allayed in baths 
varyini? from 94° to 98°. It' the temperature of 
the bath is increased, the tranquility is superseded 
by excitement and pain. It' the Ijeat be still 
increased the feelings are j)ainfully excited, and 
the temporary stimulus is followed by a propor- 
tional degree of exiiaustion. The warm bath 
influences the system either by elevating the 
temperature of the whole body or a part of it. 
If the temperature of the parts of the body which 
come in contact with the medium, is higher than 
the medium itself, the body makes an effort to 
bring the m ;dium to its own temperature, and 
vice versa. The range of temj)erature to which 
the body is subject is not a very wide one. While 
life remains, it is limited to a few decrees. In a 
bath the skin exhales and absorbs materials from 



86 

the bath in a proportion varied by its temperature. 
At 50° ilie al)S()rptiuu excee«ls the transiida.ion ; 
fro.'ij 50° to 70° the two effects are neatly balanc- 
ed; but from 70° upwards the transudation 
excee«ls the absorption, and t'ie excet^s j)rogre8- 
sively increases with the ternj)erature. Warm 
water modifies tlie texture oV ll-e skin, perhaps in 
part by absorption, ar)d partly fiotn a specific 
action on the animal fibre. This bath also regu- 
lates the circulation, and increases the volume of 
the whole body, as well as the amount olthe fluids 
i 1 the body. Alter long tUtigue, as hard walking, 
riding, or any severe exejci-e, the body, as hefore 
said, shoidd be left to cool, before going into the 
bath, wliich should be gratelulto the ])alient. 
This is in general from 94° to 9(3°. Alter the 
fatigues of a i'ew days' travel the skin becomes 
dry, the secretions are diminished, the bio )d is 
irregularly di.-tributed, the nervous system is 
excited, and a low slow fever irequently super- 
venes. Under this state of the system the warm 
bdth is an appropriate pres(trijHion. 

After long and continued mental excitement, 
as in proti acted study, or of the disturbance 
of the system by late hours, crow led rooms, and 
bad air, the war.ii bath is just the restorative 
required. 

In a dry skin, with a chronic cojigestion of some 
internal organ, the bath is an {'ppronriare remedy. 
]t is also a|»[)licable to a more generally deranged 
state of the system, as in chronic nervous diseases 
of a spasmodic character, unattended by phthisis or 
inflatnmation of the nervous centers. Of this kind 
are crou}) and convulsions generally. Also in the 
treattnent of nervous affections which occur in 
persons of spare habit, who sufter from j)ain dis- 
proportioned to the attending inflammation. Of 



87 

this kind may be mentioned tlie niunerous forms 
of neuralgia, incliidinir sciatica, lurnbago, gastral- 
gia, clioiic, spasms foai gall-stones, calculi in 
the ureters, «fcc. In inflaminatioii of the ahdomi- 
nal asid pelvic organs wjien the iiiHamniation has 
been in a rnensiu'e reduced, as in dysentery, 
diarrhoea, enteritis, cystitis, the bath at 96° or 97° 
is a useTuI remedy. Care, in these instances, 
must be taken to reduce the inflainniation at 
first, and then to use the bath not above 97°, or 
tlie disease will be aggravated rather than dimin- 
ished. 

The bath is also an appropriate remedy in 
diseases of the same viscera unattended perhaps 
by pain, but yet of a very annoyiufjr character. 
Such are those cases of gastro-enteritisaccotnpi- 
nied by dysiiepsia, constipation, also chronic irri- 
tation or inflatnmation of the bladder, kidneys, 
lucorrlioea and the like diseases, which so fre- 
quently occiu' in the pelvic viscera. 

If) no cases are these baths more applicable or 
attended with more j)rompt and liappy results. 
The cases of dy^pf^psia which come under this 
class, where the functions of the skin are deranged, 
its appearance altered, and attended by a fixed 
dittiess or pain in some part of the digestive 
organs, the bath is also one of the most important 
remedies. It is also valuable in most cases of 
dyspepsia, and in various chronic diseases of a 
cachectic kind, with <lerangemeuts of itjiportant 
organs, a <le|)ressed state of the blood, witli an 
irregular dis[rihution of it, as in cases of long pro- 
tracted dy.->pppsifi, with coiistip ition, diabetis, 
chlorosis and gout. Iii this l-ist disease tlie bath 
is to be used in interiuis between the ])aroxysms 
and not duri/ig tlie acute state of the disease. 

In diseases of the skin, either idiopathic or 



88 

symptomatic, the warm bath is of the first import- 
ance. It acts directly on tiie part di^^easeci, and 
renK>ves the morbid secretions from the surface, 
wliich are liable to irritate the organ, and to be re- 
absorbed. 

The alkaline, astringent, and alterative medi- 
cines, are proper in these baths. In n)edicated 
baths the patient should remain not less than thirty 
minuses, and sometimes perhaps for two or three 
hours, in order to obtain the whole effect which 
is to be desired. 

The temperature of a bath required for refresh- 
ment, n)ust be between 93° and 98° Fahr. But 
lower than 93° is not often afrreeable to the 
patient, and higher than 98° produces exhaustion 
and debility. 

MINERAL BATHS. 

The hot hath is a powerful, yet temporary 
stimulant to the nervous and vascular systems. 
It does not soothe or promote the natural actions 
of the system but excites them irregularly and 
forcibly. It tends more to disturb than to 
equalize the functions of the organs. It violently 
excites the heart and blood vessels, the carotids 
swell and throb, the heat of the head increases, 
and headache, giddiness, and many other cerebral 
symptoms ensue; the skin becomes red and 
swollen by the great afflux of blood in its vessels. 
But this engorged state of the skin does not 
relieve internal congestion, as we might be led to 
ex|)ect, for ex|)erienre teachrs that contrary 
results more I'-enerally follow. The izreat tension 
of the surface is after a time relieved by a profuse 
and general perspiration, and if the bath is con- 
tinued, although the jiulse remain quick, the 
increased excitement is speedily followed by 



89 

general laseitude and debility; torpor and somno- 
lency sii])ervene. Cases for its use are spasmodic 
clinlera, aLMies, &c. ]n sudden recet-sions of 
di?eas'^>s of the skin, as in measles, scarlet fever, 
impetigo and many others, enterites, from retro- 
cedent gout, and in indolent diseases of the skin 
in paralysis, where there is no congestion of the 
brain to contra indicate it, its use has been bene- 
ficial. But it is a very active agent, and like all 
other decidedly active agents must be used vvith 
caution, or great and irreparable injuries may 
result. 

The stimulating effects and the relaxing conse- 
quences constitute the value of this bath. 

Mineral water laths.. — Without entering into tho 
question of the active absorption [)ovvers of the 
skin, and the large amount of medicine which 
may be conveyed into the system by this great 
and important organ, it may be safely said, that 
the mineral baths have an effect very diffen nt 
from j-imple water. A mineral bath is more 
tonic than one of ordinary water. The skin 
weakened and relaxed by debility exudes rather 
than perspires, and will be very differently effected 
by a fresh and a mitieral bath. The latter will 
fulfil! all the results which the former can possibly 
produce, and then have in addition a stimulant 
and tonic effect. It will leave the ca[)illaries of 
the skin more caustringed, and the tis^^ues of the 
whole organ more firm and vigorous. 

In extreme cases of cutaneou;» disease, patients 
have been benefited by rem.tining several liours at 
a time in a warm bath, with repetition at short 
intervals, so as to be under its influence for ten or 
twelve hours out of the twenty-four. 

From great indifference to the subject, the 



90 

public mind lias within a few years been turned 
to it strongly, and now |)erhaj)s t;iere may be as 
nnicli dan<2er of exce-s as heretofore iheie has 
been from neirlect of ball^!^J,^ Kxtretiies in all 
things are to be deplored and guarded against. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ROCK AND FOSSILS. 

Potsdam Sandstone. — This rock is interesting; 
from the fact tFiatit contains the earliest fossil, viz: 
the Lingida. This fo»i-il carries us bnck to the 
dawn of animal life on t^ie earlh, fbi- it has been 
present throu h all ihe chanL^es which liie earth's 
cru>t !'as undergone since ihe formation of the 
Potsdam sandstone to the j)resent time. Each 
grou[), in every geological era has a species of the 
lingula entombed in its r )cks, and even the 
present ocean is said to contain living specimens 
of the same species, which in due time will make 
part of the rock, which is now in process of 
formation at the bottom of the seas. 'J'his rock 
is called the '' ])aleozoic i)ase," and crops out 
about two and a half miles N. W. from the villagi. 
It is gray or brownish colored rock. 

The Calciferous Sand Rock is the next geological 
formation above the Potsdam sandstone. Jl lies 
between the last n.-imed rock and the limestone. 
This is the lowest rock which contains anthracite 
coal. In this instnnce, the co;d is associated 
with quartz. This rock also contains feecoides, 
which aie suppof^ed to be the source from which 
the coal is derived.* This is the surface rock at 

*New York Geological Survey. 



91 

Saratojra Springs, and is fli^ one through which 
tJie mineral waUr rises. The upper Inyer of liiis 
group or that striUini which lies next to the lime- 
efoiie is liard; haviiijr '^ hirge proportion of the 
siHx, and frequently contains geodes filled with 
crystals of quaitz. This rock furnishes l)nt few 
fossils, sof7ie portions none at all. The rock in 
this viniiiify is supposed to contain the following: 

Univalves. — I'.uniphalns, vmiangnlatus, Maclara 
gar<lia, and 0|)hilela levata. 

Plants — Biithotro[)his antiquata. A ribbon 
agate is also found in this rock. 

The Trenton Limestone group is composed of 
elates and limestone alternating with each odier. 
Some of the strata contain fossils whic'i charac- 
terize this grou|). and distinguish it from others, 
higher in the geoloLncal series. This rock does 
not occur east of Schenectady in the IMohawk 
valley, or east of Baker's ia II -^ in t!ie Hudson river 
valley. It occurs at Glen's Falls and at Row 
land's mills, two miles west of Saratoga Springs. 
It occupies the bank of the Mohawk, near Am- 
sterdam, th< nee ranges northward into Saratoga 
county, tlience eastward around the j)oints 
of the mountain, and enters Warren county 
at G'en's Falls, and Washington county, near 
Sandyhifl. The strata vary in thickness from 
four inches to two feet. This rock has been 
mannfHctured, and some of the varieties make 
very fair mHrl)le. Other specimens contain cherts 
and hornstone, and will not receive a polish. 
Large blocks of the marble, quite pure, are quar- 
ried at Glen's Falls, on tlie south side of t'le 
river. Tho Hudson river at Glen's Falls would 
seem to have worn a passage through the lime 
rocks, seventy feet in depth ; and in some parts 



92 

of the narrow gorge between Glen's Falls and 
Baker's falls, through which the river flows, the 
rocks on either sifle have a })erj)eii(Iicnlar liight 
of more than one hundred feet. I'his rock is 
rich in fossil shells and the following is a list of 
those found in ihis vici)iity: 

Bivalves. — Atrypa altilis, A. plena, A. plecifera, 
A. extans, A. hisulcr.ta, A. s»d)trigonalis. Nncula 
levata, N. postinata. T.inirula allernata. Orthis 
caf-talis, O. tesrudenaris, O. plicatella, O. pccte- 
nalis. Leptsena faciala, L. allernata, L. deltaidea, 
L. serica, L. filitr^xra, and Delthyris lynx. 

Univalves. — Murchisonia ventricasa, Pleuroto- 
n)ia nnibdicata, P. lenticularis, Ilollspea pallu- 
ibrmi. 

Crestaceovs. — Tsotelus canalis, T. gigns, Asa})hus 
rnnrginatis, Ceraurus pleurexaniheiniis, Calyniene 
beckii, C. senaria, Trinucleus concentricus, 
Phce ips collicephHlus. 

Corals. — Strepstelasma cornicuhim, S. crassa, 
S. parrula, Sticto})ora elegantula, Goi^onia aspera, 
Colunniaria alveolata, Reteiiora incepta, Chatetis 
lycaj)erdan. 

Crmoii/eof.— Actinoerinus tenuvadiatus, Shiso- 
crinus nodasus. 

Plants. — Pliytopsis cellnlasum, Paleophycus 
vugasus, and Buthotrepis succuleus.* 

Ulica Slate. — This group consists of dark colored 
argillaceous sl<te. It occurs at liaker's falls, 
Cohoes falls, Ballston i^\m, and Saratojja lake. 
The rock is sometimes hlack, Iiijihly carbonaceous, 
and glazed with amhracite. The fossils are, 
Triorthus l)eckii, Graptolites dentatus, and tracho- 
iilus, the Fucoides dentatus, F. serra, and some 
others of the same kind, also some species of 
Trilohites. 
* H. McGuire'e Manuscript. 



93 

So highly charged is this slate with carbon, 
that it has been mistaken for coal, and attempts 
(it is said), have been made to work the rock tor 
that purpose. 

The Hudson river slate group extends from the 
southern line ot ijie county of Saratoga, forming 
the bed of tlie Hudson to Baker's falls, an«i also of 
the Mohawk, and forms in part, the elevated table 
lands lying hack from both the I\lohawk and 
Hudson nvers. Portions of this group are 
singularly contorted at the Cohoes falh, Visscher's 
ferry, Alexander's bridge, U[)per aqueduct and 
Snake hill on the east shore of Saratoga lake. 
The rocks of this group are slates, shales and 
grits, and have been called Greywacke slate, 
Greywacke shale, and Greywacke.* 

Hudson River Group. — These rocks are found 
at Snake hill, on the east shore ot Saratoga lake, 
and on the Mohawk at the lower aqueduct. 

Bivalves at Snake hill are, Leptasna alternata, L. 
serica, Atrypa increbescence, Orthis testudinaria, 
Orbicula crassa, Orthonota contracta, Meodiolop- 
sis anodantides, xM. modiolaris. iM. curta. 

Univalves. — Cyitolites ornatus. 

Cruslactous. — Trinuclius cotaractici, T. concen- 
tricu.^, Calymene senasea, C. Beckii. 

Corals. — Streptelasma. 

Crinoidei. — lleterocrinus heterodactylus, Glyp- 
tocrinus decadactylus. 

Plants. — Buthatrepis flexuasa, Gordia marina. 

Oolite. — This formation occtirs in the calcifer- 
ous group, and lies along the southern extremities 
of ttie Palmertown and Kayaderasseras mountains. 

*Ne\v York Geological Report. 



94 

The calcnremis concretions which characterize 
this forrr)ation are arnm^ed in successive layers 
throiiah the stratum in which they a|)|)ear. 'I'hey 
are ahout the size of rniistard sef cl, and elohular 
in form. In some of ilie sjiecimens of Oolite, 
these glchules compose one half of the stone. 

The remaining r^cks of the county are primary, 
occupying ahout two-fifths of the northwest parts 
of it. 

Magnetic Iron Ore occurs in the primary rocks 
of this county as an injected mass, or as an intru- 
sive rock. A large ho dy of this ore exists in the 
mountain south of the confluence of Sacandaga 
with the Hudson and ahout two miles soutli of 
Hadley or Rockwell falls. Ten or fifteen veins 
have heen de^ciiht-d, and one, from five to eight 
feet wide. When the Porter vein wj^s ojiened 
it was found to increase in width as they descendt-d 
into the rock, and with less of felds|)ar. Tlie ore 
is said to make very soft strong iron, and to he 
su|)erior even to the Arnold bed. The ore is 
quartzy and yields from thirty to fifty per cent 
of iron. 

Chrysoherijl is found about two miles north of 
Sarato^ra Springs, and on tlie farm of the late 
John JMiiler. It occurs iti a vein of granite travers- 
ing genis and isassociiited with tourmaline, gnrnet, 
apatite feldsp '.r and mica. Its color is yehowish 
green. This is the only locality in the state which 
furnishes the chrysoberyl. 

C/nij Balls are found about the shores of Sara- 
toiia lake. These balls are suj)|>osed to form 
around the roots of plants, as they generally have 
a perforation in which the root of the plant has 



95 

been found. It is supposed the root absorbes the 
water and the carbonic acid from the chiy, and 
rejects the carbonate of liine, whicli had heen pre- 
viously hehl in Fohition by the water and the 
carbonic acid. And this accuniulvtes arouiid the 
root of the phont, wliic.li with tiie chiy becomes 
after a time an indurated egg-shaped balh 

A bouldfr is a rounded mass of rock, of no 
deternfuiate size, dis])hiced, and apj)arently trans- 
ported by water. These rocks are supposed to 
have been brought to their present shape by attri- 
tion together with atmospheric influences. Those 
which are fbmid in tin valley of the Hud?on are 
generally thougiit to have been brought from the 
primitive rocks whicli form the mountain ranges 
in noithern New York. In ibis coimty we find 
these stones in a great variety of forms and 
sizes, some of them weighing many tons. The 
towns of Hadley, Corinth, Greenfield, Galway 
and Ballsion, are among those wljicb furnish the 
largest specimens. 

Marl. — Fresh water marl is formed by the. 
decay of successive generations of shells in the 
bottom of fresh water lakes and ponds. When 
from !Uiy cause these places nre raised to a level 
compatible with the germination of seed, there 
follows a succession of growth a»id defray of 
vegetable matter, which may result in a dejiosit 
of peat, and hence it is not unusually iound over- 
lying the marl. Marl has not been found very 
generally in this country. There is a bed of it 
liowever ab:)ut the omlet of Ballston lake, on tlie 
farm of Mr. Irish, which has been used as a fer- 
tilizer, and with marked success. It would un- 
doubtedly prove profitable to the agriculturist, if 



■ 96 

fyrmers would use much more of it than they 
now do, for the action of the elements on the che- 
micals generally present in e^oils, r» rders tlie lime 
sohfile, and it is acUially carried away. 

There is another hed of marl on the farm of 
Dr. Oliver Brisbin, in the town of Saratoga. This 
bed has been but little used as yet, but wherever 
it has been applied, decidedly bf^nejficial effects 
have followed its nse. It has been suspected by 
geologists, that it may underlie the shandy soils 
whicii prevad to so large an extent in this county. 
But the probaV)ility is that beds of !»iarl will be 
confined to that {)art of the county adjncent to the 
Hudson river, for the water of this region flowing 
over the limestone rocks, at last finds its way into 
the lakes, other^^ise sufficient lime would not be 
supplied to produce a deposit of shells. 

Soil is composed of various mineral substances, 
united in comparatively small proportions with 
animal and vejietable matter. 

I'he mineral parts of soil are composed of the 
same substances which constitute the mountain 
rocks, and the mineral masses which form the 
crust of the earth. 1 he rocks are broken down 
bv degrees, and then acted upon by air and water, 
by which process they become well adapted to 
the reception and vegetation of seed generally. 
T he varieties of rocks and mineral masses which 
exist on the earth and compose its surface, are 
comparatively small, and may be comprised in 
the lollowing list, viz: Silica, alumina, magnesia, 
soda and [) )tassa, and oxide of iron. 

With the predominance of either of the above 
substances in a iiiven locality, tfie soil of course, 
as well as the character of the vegetables, corres- 
pondingly varies. 



97 

Silicious Soil, or that composed principally of 
silex, is very widely spread over the earth's cnist. 
It is found in quartz, and of course enters lar^j^ely 
into the composition of granite, and the various 
silicates, as serpentine, tumalite, diallage, and 
hornblend; and when we examine the rocks 
which compose the mountains to the north and 
west of the county, and consider the very large 
proportion of silex which enters into their com- 
position, we are at no loss to account for the 
origin oi the sandy plains which there prevail so 
extensively. 

Where this sand occurs in coarse grains it is 
much less productive as a soil, than when more 
comminuted; and the less or greater degree of 
tritiu'ation which the particles have undergone, 
will determine the different degrees of produc- 
tiveness which characterize adjacent sections. 

Soils ap[)arently the snme, also materially dif- 
fer in their degree of productiveness in conse- 
quence of the differing amounts of vegetable 
matter contained in them, and are rendered still 
less fertile if they occuf)y elevated land, where 
water at a low temperature saturates the surface. 
In localities of tiiis description, pasturage is poor, 
and plowed lands are unavailable. In other 
cases where clay exists in couibinaiion with sand 
BO as to produce a sand loam, very fair farms are 
developed. This soil prevails in the town of 
Saratoga Springs, Wilton, Corinth, Hadley, and 
the west part of Moreau and Northundierland. 
It occupies a large proportion of eastern New 
York, and prevails generally in fifteen out of 
twenty counties of the State. 

The next variety of soil most abundant is the 
aluminous, the base of which is alumina. It is 
found by the breaking down of grey wacke, slates, 



98 

and shales. In combination with silex it forms a 
large jjroportion of all the rocks and mineral 
masses on the eartli. The slate rocks crop out 
at two miles distance from the springs in a 
BCHitherly direction on the t^lhs farm. From this 
point they run in a noithe 'St direction to Fort 
Miller on the Undson, and may be seen skirling 
the saj.d plains on their eastern border frotn 
the town oi" Clifton P.iik to Morean. 

When jdun)nia is in excess, in soils, it makes 
cold and wet farms, but when combined with 
silex the (day ioatn is formed; this, with the addi- 
tion of an ordinary amount of vegetal)le and 
animal matter, gives good farming lands; and 
when to this is added marl, or lime in some form, 
farndtig land of the l)est qn;ility is the result. 

J'his is the composition of the soil along the 
banks of the Hudsori and Mohawk rivers, also 
about the Saratoga and Ballston lakes, and the 
creeks in the southeast j)art of the county. This 
soil is of considerahle depth and very produc- 
tive, yielding grass and all the cereals in abun- 
dance; and I am told, in districts of this character, 
strangers passing by, mistaking [)astures for mea- 
dows, in the goodness of their liearts, not unfre- 
quently call at the farm houses, and inform the 
occupants that their cows or their horses are in 
their meadows. 

The Calcareous soils, or those in which lime 
predominates, are the result of the breakmgdowii 
of the different forms of carbonate of lime, which 
exist so abundantly through the world. 

The Map^nesian soil is that in which magnesia 
exists variously combined. This and the soils 
just before named })revail in western New York, 
and with the addition of gypsum, large quantities 



of vegetable and animal matter, combined, make 
up the rich lands of that fertile region. 

Ferruginous soils are those in which the oxides 
of iron prevail. 

PRODUCTIONS. 

To the Botanist this whole county is full of 
interest, indeed it may ])erhaj)s with trutli, be 
asjerted, that every flowerini; plant in the country 
to be found in tlie latitude of this county, has 
its representative within its limits. 

The climate, from the nature and sha-|^e of the 
surface, is unusually dry, and consequently the 
ranjre of the thermometer is very jrreat; yet, the 
extremes of heat and cold do not affect the sur- 
face nearly so rmu*h as in jr)oister atmospheres. 
From an acquaintance with the nauire aiul varie- 
ty of the soil which prevails in the county, it miaht 
be readily iiilerrt-d that a correspon<lent variety 
would he foimd in its ve^retable products. This is 
observahle in the forest timber and siunller plains. 

In the eastern and southern portions of the 
county, aj)ples aufl a varieiy of peaches have 
0!ice ahounded; but now, the varieties are few, 
and the fruit is not so rich as formerly. 

Cherries. — Every variety succeeds well. 

Penrs succeed retnarkably w^ell, in nearly every 
variety. In the central |)ortions, the small fruits, 
as t>trawbeiries, raspberries, whortleberries and 
blackberries are indiij^enous and abundant, and 
will l)ear high cultivaiion. 

• Several varieties of wild grapes cultivated, are 
highly itnproved l)y the pr .cess. Tiiey are 
abundani in the sandy portion of the county. 



100 

Maples, hickories, elms, oaks, butternnte, chest- 
nuts, beeches, birches, basswoods, aspens, black 
and white ash, black cherry, crab apple, are plenty 
in ihe eastern part of the county. 

Tlie central portion has been, and is now re- 
markable for the number, beauty and variety of 
its everf(reens. The spe'-ies of these most com- 
mon are white and yellow pines, yellow, white 
and red cedar, double spruce and baltam, and 
hemlock. These sand plains on the central part 
of the flat, were once covered with a heavy 
growth of these fine trees; but the hand of im- 
provement, so called, has swept them recklessly 
away, and unless some care is taken, it may be 
that before very long our beautiful groves will all 
disap|)ear, and the charm of our winter land- 
scapes will all be gone. It is not very long since, 
when expostulating with a land holder for cutting 
away every trace of evergreen within view of his 
residence, we received the cool reply, that they 
were " nothins; but pines" And so those stately 
trees, old tenants of tha forest which had wea- 
thered the storm and glinted the sunshine, and 
braced thetnselves against the winds of centuries, 
were felled and riven by the axe of the woodman 
without a single thought of regret, or a single 
sentiment of remorse. 

Grasses. — Those parts of the county lying along 
the banks of the Hudson and Mohiwk rivers, the 
Kayadnrasseras creek and the shores of the lakes, 
are well adapted to the growth of grasses. 

Timothy is one of the most important grasses 
for fodder, and is abundantly produced in the 
above mentioned parts of the county. 

Clover grows luxuriantly in most }>arts of the 
county. The red is much used to redeem farms 



101 

whicli have been too much worn by want of a 
proper rotation of crops. The vvhit3 clover is 
indigenous, and is found in every part of the 
county. Tlie fox tail (Alopeicearus practeusis), 
and red top, are the most cultivated for hay in 
this county. 

Grains.— Bye is much cultivated in many parts 
of the county, atid particularly the sandy portions 
of the county are well adapted to the growth of 
this esculent grain. This grain ground and com- 
bined with corn meal makes a very healthy and 
nutritious bread. Two varieties, the winter and 
spring rye, are cultivated in the county. 

Whent. — This favorite grain was much cultivated 
in the county in early times, but in later years it has 
been so nmch injured by the weevil that it is but 
rarely sown. 'J he spring wheat is less likely to 
be injured by the insects than the winter wheat, 
but is not considered so good for bread, and is 
but little cultivated at the present time; and the 
inhabitants of the county depend upon the west- 
ern country for their wheat flour. 

Oats are much cultivated in the county and may 
be said to be one of the staple crops. They are 
mainly used as feed for horses. 

Maize is the most important grain crop raised 
in the county. Every fanner raises more or less 
of it. It constitutes quite a large proportion of the 
bread in the least productive parts of the county. 

Potato. — This plant is well adapted to the cli- 
mate and soil of the county. Large crops of it 
are cultivated along the canals and rail roads, and 
a great number of bushels every year find their 
way to New York city. The potato enters largely 
into the daily food of all classes of the people, 



102 

anfl is one of the most im[)ortant crops cultivated 
ill the county. 

Buckioheai is n]?o cuUivated to some extent. 

Beans jjiovv well in most parts of the county, 
and it is to he renretted thnt they are not more 
cidtivateil and eaten hy the lahoring clasfses gener- 
ally. 

Most of the county is well adapted to horticul- 
ture; aiid all the jr;u-den vej/etihles usually cidti- 
vated in this latitude flourish in the soils of this 
reirion. 

it is to he regretted that in so larire a portion 
of this comity, the e is so much negligence on 
the part of land holders, in recard to private 
ganlens. An increased amount and variety of 
vegetahles would add greatly to the comfort of 
the household, and a hitle care in the cultivation 
of flowers and ornamental shnd)s, would furnish 
healiidul and ph-a^ant employment to the youuirer 
memhers of the family, and greatly improve their 
habits ot observation. 

Drives about Saratoga. — The drive most 
commonly select.^d is to Saratoga Lake. This is a 
beautiftd sheet of water, and lies four miles east 
from the village of Saratoga Springs. The lake 
is eight miles long and two and a half wide. Its 
main inlet is the Kayaderasseras creek, which 
flows into the lake through its western bank, 
'i'he water of the Sake passes through Fish creek 
and unites with that of the Hudson river at 
Schuylerville. 'J'he western shore, of the lake 
near its outlet, rises into a beautiful hlufF of fifty 
feet, nnd on the top of this bluff is situated the 
" L'lke House," from the ])iazza of which may be 
had a fine view of the lake and its eastern shore, 
with Snako Hill. 



103 

The Lake House is a favorite esating place, 
where iTHrTie ditiiiers are served up in the most 
a[)proved st}le. Persons fond of angling, rowing 
or .saiMng, can here enjoy tlieir favorite pastime, 
on one of the most he tutilnl hikes in the country. 
The hait-rish and the hoats are always in wailing 
on the shore, and cooks are in readmess to serve up 
at sliort notice, any fish which mxy chance to be 
caught. Or the angling and sailing may be dis- 
pensnd with, and the drive be extended across 
tlie bridge, along the lake sliore for a mile, where 
a turn to the ]vft up the liill, will soon bring one 
to Ch'ipmati's Hill, from the top of which, and 
one hundred eiglitv-eijiht feet above the level of 
tht^ lake, a beajtiini western landscape is spread 
bt-fore tile observer. The lake is almost under his 
feet, a niirrore<l surfice of twenty miles square. 
The western sliore of the h.ke rises rapidly to 
the table land, which spreads away to the west a 
distance often or twelve miles, and is tnerired in 
the base of tlie Kayaderasheras mountain, giving 
a view frojn forty to fifty mi'es in extent. Its sur- 
face is beautifully variegated with fallow, meadow 
and wood land, and th 3 tenements and out build- 
ings of the farmers are thickly dispersed and re- 
flect, each for itself, a few sunbeams, making 
many bright spots in the land^ca[)e; while in the 
backgroimd tlie bold range of the Kayaderasseras 
mountain rises to the height of two thnusird feet 
above the levt 1 of tide water, and stretches along 
the liorizon for fifty or sixty miles. The monmain 
rises out of the tablt^. land, as its base, ahd lifts up 
its sununit info tlie ^ky, while the distance tints 
its peak with a most exquisite azure. 

Ky continuing the drive slill further in a north- 
eastern direction for about three miles, through a 
rich farming country, a view of Wagman's Hill is 



104 

obtained. This point is still higher* than Chap- 
mon's Hill, and commands a more extended pa- 
noramic view. The Adirondac mountains appear 
in the extreme north, the Kayaderasseras spread- 
ing a deep hlue border along the western horizan, 
the Helderberg and the Catskill skirting the dis- 
tant sonth, while the Green mountain chain bor- 
ders the eastern view, each subdued and softened 
by distance, as the tops blend with the sky. This 
very beautiful view as it spreads away to the 
north-west and to the south-west, places within 
the range of the eye, one thousand square n.iles 
of farming lands, with waving grain and deep 
shaded meadows ; the mountain forest, and 
the wood lot of the farmer casting a cool shade 
across the fallow field, as though to [)rotectit from 
the scorching rays of a summer's sun, while the 
Fish creek winding its way to the Hudson, and 
increased by many a mountain stream, enlivens 
and beautifies tlie whole of the landscape. This 
hill is seven miles from town, to which a party 
can return, by Stafford's bridge and Vibbard's 
Lake House in ample time for dinner. 

Hasariy Hill is situated six miles north of Sara- 
toga Springs, and nearly on the plank road iead- 
inj; from the village to Luzerne on the Hudson 
river. It is about half a mile due west from 
Greenfield Center, and commands a western, 
southern and eastern view.f On the west rises 
the b'jld range of the Kayaderasseras mountain, 
extending far away to the north, and to the south 
is spread out a wide plain covered with ever- 
greens, and bounded by high and broken ranges 
of mountain land sotith of the Mohawk river. 
But to the east a still more beautiful part of the 
same landscape greets the eye. 

* Fifty- seven feet. 

fThia point i8 600 feet above tide water. 



105 

Almost under the feet and spreading away to 
the east, lies a deep basin surrounded by a high 
range ofland, except to the south. This basin is 
thickly dotted over with iarms, wood land, villages 
and lakes, and margined on its extreme east by 
the Green mountain range on the other side of 
the Hudson river. This is a beautiful drive of six 
miles out, and on returning to town, the road east 
through Greenfield Center, will give a partial, yet 
very pretty view from "Meeting-House Hill," 
midway between Greenfield Center and St. John's 
Corners. At St. John's the right hand road is to 
be taken, which leads over the Hewit and West- 
cott hills. These are very pretty views of distant 
mountain scenery, and will impart a little variety 
to the drive, and not materially increase the dis- 
tance back to town. 

The boldest and the most imposing view within 
a convenient drive from the Springs is "Mount 
Loper," on the the road to "Mount Pl^.asant." 
Here, within the distance of sixteen miles from 
town, an elevation is attained of two thousand feet 
above tide water, and one of the highest points of 
land between the valley of the Hudson and Lake 
Ontario. 

From this point of observation all the other 
views which have been previously noticed, come 
within the range of the observer's eye; and the 
far dit^tant tops of the mountains as they gradual- 
ly pass into the azure sky, pres^^nt one of the 
most beautifid landscape borderings anywhere to 
be found. This view gives the villages of Sara- 
toga, Ballston Spa, Schnuectady, VVaterford, Me- 
chanicsville, Schuylerville, and the smaller set- 
tlements generally through the county. Also 
Saratoga lake. Fish creek. Owl pond, Ballston 
lake and Round lake; together with thewinding 



106 

stream of Kayaderapseras, from its source in the 
sides ot tlie mount tin, to its entrance into the 
Saratojra ];ike, and the whole i-onrs^e ot" the Hud- 
son from its confluence with the Sacandajia. until 
it is lotJt in the mids^t of the (^atskill muuniains. 
These ail lie within the eye of rhe ob^ Tver as lie 
stands on the top of Mount Loper. Here, also, 
may l)e traced the wide-spread valley of the Hud- 
son, an it lies between the Kaytiderass-eras moim- 
tain on the west, the Green m )untainson the east 
and the Palmerton setting in from the north, dot- 
ted with woodland and cultivated farms. And 
ns the clouds occasionally passoverthe hindscape 
and in turn shed a litrle darker hue on the men- 
dow, the fallow and the grove, an additional 
beauty to all is imparted, by the mellow blendim? 
of the varied tints. And when autumn comes 
and spreads its fallow leif and tinges the maple 
foliiige with its high colorings, the.^e coitfmgled 
with the everjiireens so abundant in this country, 
impart a beauty to our wild ujoimtain scenery 
which is rarely equaled, and but seldom if ever 
surpassed. 

This last mentioned view is obtained by a drive 
up the Iladley ])lank road, of about eight ujiles, 
thence along the iVIount Pleasant plank road near- 
ly up to the foot of Mount Loper, six nules, 
thence to the right by a mountain road h.r half a 
mile. At this point the carriages are to be left, 
and the Loj)er hill, of three hui^dred feet, is to be 
ascended on foot. This view may be vi>ited be- 
tween the breakfast and dinner hours, with great 
CHse. Parties visiting it, may use i; lasses to great 
advantage while U[)on the moimtain; for many 
of the villages are not to be distinctly seen by the 
naked eye. 

Another drive is Coritith falls. These falls are 



107 

sitnateH fifteen miles north of Saratoga Springs, 
in the Hudson river. The cataract is ahout one 
mile from JesjiUp's Landing. At this village is a 
comfortahie ()nl)lic liouse, and also a convenient 
place to dine. In order to view the falls frojn the 
Luzerne side, it is necessary to cross tlie river at 
tlie landing, and thence by carriage ways to the 
top of the hlufF. which rises one hundred feet 
ahove the falls, or to the bank ot the river below 
them. The rapids in the river begii ahout one 
mile above the cataract, and the stream narrows 
as it approaches the preci|)ice, to fifty feet. 
Through this narrow clianne! the water of the 
stream is driven one hundred and fitty feet, with 
great force. At this point the stream suddenly 
widens to about one hundred feet, and the water 
apj)ears to tall into a deep chasm, I'rom which it 
again ascends in billows ot fonm, and immediately 
makes its last leap over a precipice of more than 
sixty feet. There are no imj)rovements immedi- 
ately ab)ut the falli. Tlie deep gorge above 
th !m affords no o[)|)oriunity for building, and tfie 
high bluff above the cataract is so situated, that 
any oiher than [)rivate re.-^idences would be im- 
pract cable. 'J he place is in nearly all its native 
wildiiess. The high banks upon either side of 
the river are covered with pine, cedar and hem- 
lock; and the rocks are covered with a variety of 
moss, 'i'he lover of the picturescjue will find 
himself well repaid lor his time and fatigue, by a 
few hours contemplation of the wild beauty and 
lovely solitude of tliis fine cataract. 

Another pleasant drive is down the Ballston 
road iwo miles, to the Ellis Spring. This s[)ring 
is near the railroad, a few rods from where the 
Ballston highway crosses the Saratoga and Sche- 
nectady railroad, and on the west slope of the hill. 



108 

This spring is an acidulous carbonfited water, 
and is in the mineral range. The water, unlike 
those at Saratoga, issuep from the slnte rock. 

From this spring, take a westerly direction 
across the pond up to Cady Hill. At Cady Hill, 
the right hand road is to be taken, and kept for 
about two miles from the hill. This lane follows 
the banks of a small stream, thickly wooded along 
its whole length. 

Just before reaching the pond, a pair of bars 
opens the way to a large barren field upon one 
side, whil3 a beautiful grove of evergreens in 
strong contrast occupies the other side of the 
pathway. After following this trail for twenty or 
thirty rods it turns into the grove through which 
it passes, and leaves the observer to the top of a 
bluff about forty feet in hight. At the base of this 
bluff is a mineral spring strongly charged with 
sulphur. This place is susceptible of great im- 
provements, and indeed of being made one of 
considerable attraction. Across the ravine is a 
marble quarry which has been worked to a con- 
siderable extent. 

The way over the pond is to be taken and a 
westerly course pursued for half a mile. At this 
place the right hand road is to be taken, and con- 
tinued past two roads bearing off to the east, up 
to the third road, which will lead the way to the 
Hadley plank road at " Splinterville." Just 
before reaching the last mentioned road to the 
east, a limestone formation is passed, unique in 
apjiearance. The surface of the recks is Ibrmed 
into nearly concentric rings, which vary in size 
from an inch to eighteen inches in diameter. 
'I'his agate appearance is not oidy found in por- 
tions of rock in the mass, but also in detached 
portions of various sizes. Near this oolitic forma- 



100 

tlon, is iner*»nsc I-Toj't'a lime kiln, from which the 
village of Sararo^a Springs is mainly siip|»lird 
wifh this important article. On reaching ihe 
plank road at *• Splinterville," the Greenfield 
reservoir may be seen about forty or fifty ro Is in 
an easterly direction from the junction of the two 
roads. From this reser , oir fresh water is brought 
in conduits to supply ihe village. Two miles 
farther east, the plank road terminates in Broad- 
way, at the Columbian Hotel. The whole circuit 
making a driv9 of about seven or eight miles, 

x4inother pleasant excursion is to be had by a 
drive of a few miles along the east base of the 
Palrnertown mountain, to Eli Stiles', thence near 
the school house, from a point within a few rods of 
which, may be found an extensive and beautiful 
view. This view commands a beautiful laud- 
scape, which to the south extends fifty or sixty 
miles duwu the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. To 
the east, is held in full view, the beautiful moun- 
tain range which rises up so imposingly between 
the Hudson and Connecticut valleys. While to 
the north, is to be seen the Green Mountains of 
Vermont. This view is one of the very best 
which we have of the Hudson river valley lying 
north of its confluence with the Mohawk, and 
commands the wide plains which are spread out 
between the Kayaderasseras mountain on the 
west, and the high range of land lying east of the 
Hudson river. These plains were covered with 
a most beautiful growth of white and yellow 
pines and other evergreens, before the woodman's 
axe had rudely cut them away, but now they are 
nearly shorn of their beauty, with only here and 
there a clump of trees to vary the flat barren 
sand plain. 

10 



110 

The tlifferent distances of the mountain penks 
from the observer, give all the variety of colorin<^ 
which so greatly enhance the interest of mountain 
views. 

There are some large boulders to be seen on 
the top of "Stiles Hill," which are also worthy 
of an examination, having probably been brought 
from the primitive mountains still farther to the 
north. 



INDEX. 

Page. 

Acid, Carbonic 60 

Albany Well, 31 

Alterative use of the Mineral Water, 70 

Ballston Fountains, 33 

Ballston, town of 9 

Bathing, 78 

Bath, douche ^ 83 

Bath, foot 84 

Bath, hip 84 

Bath, hot, 84 

Bath, mineral 89 

Bath, reaction from 81 

Bath, refrigerating 80 

Bath, sponge S3 

Bath, temperate 84 

Balh, warm ^ . .. . 89 

Bilious Diseases, 68 

Bromine, 59 

Carbonate of Iron, 55 

Carbonate of Lime, 57 

Carbonate of JNIagnesia, 57 

Carbonate of Soda, 56 

Cathartic, 77 

Charlton , town of 10 

Chloride of Sodium, 53 

Chlorosis, 73 

Chrysoberyl, 94 

Clarke, John 41 

Clay Balls, 94 

Clifton Park, town of 14 

Corinth, town of 13 

Constipation, 77 

Cutaneous Diseases, 72 



112 

Page. 

Day, town of 13 

Depuration, 67 

Diaphoretic 67 

Diuretic 67 

Drives about Saratoga, 102 

Early Settlements, 5 

Edingburgh, town of .' . . 12 

Evacuents, 66 

Fossil Plants, 91, 92, 93 

Fossil Shells, 91,92,93 

Gal way, town of 10,11 

Gravel, 71 

Greenfield, town of 12 

Hadley, town of 12 

Halfmoon, town of 9 

High Rock, 36 

High Rock Spring, 35 

Hydrodate Potassa, 59 

Introduction, 2 

Iron, Magnetic 94 

Iron, Phosphate of 59 

Johnson, Sir William 14 

Limestone, Trenton 91 

Malta, town of. 12 

Marl, deposits of 95 

Milton, town of 10, 11 

Mineral Range, 31 

Mineral Water, bathing in, 89 

Mineral Water, use of in winter 75 

Moreau, town of 12 

Northim berland, town of 12 

Oolitic Formation, 93 

Ore, Iron 94 

Phagedenic Sores, 72 

Phthisis Pulmonalis, 74 

Productions of Saratoga county, 99 

Providence, tov.n of 12 

Putnam, Gideon 17 

Rheumatism, Chronic 71 



113 

Page. 

Sandstone, Calciferous 90 

Sandstone, Potsdam 90 

Saratoga, definition of 9 

Saratoga, settlement of 5 

Saratoga Springs, town of 1 3, 34 

Saratoga, town of 9 

Schuyler, Gen. Philip 25 

Scrofula, •..• "72 

Slate, Hudson River 93 

Slate, Utica 92 

Snake Hill, rocks of 93 

Spring, Argyle 35 

'' Columbian 42 

" Congress 39 

'-' Ellis 34 

" Empire 47 

" Gaylor 47 

'^ Hamilton 43 

" High Rock 35 

" Iodine 46 

'' Pavilion 44 

" White Sulphur 51 

Springs, Quaker 35 

'^ Ten 35 

Steel, Dr. John H 57 

Stillwater, town of 9 

Walton, Henry 28 

Waterbury, William 26 

Waterford, town of 12 

Wilton, town of 13 

PLATES. 

Congress Spring, 39 

Columbian ' ' 4'^ 

E>^-Pire " f 

High Rock " ^^ 



ERRATA. 

Page 21, 11th line, for flamishecl, read flourished. 
" 30, 12th line, for Iodine, read iodine. 
" 36, 17th line, for to the rock, read to the 

water. 
" 45, 2d line, for rises, read rose. 
" 45, 8th line, for it, read them. 
" 45, 9th line, for cleft, read shaft. 
" 49, 5th line from bottom, for shows, read 

above. 
" 53, Cth line, for country, read county. 
" Gl, 2d line from bottom, for respireable, 

read irrespireable. 
" G7, 4th line, diuretic, for venal, read renal. 
" 69, 5th line from bottom, for venal, read 
renal. 
, 12th li 
feculent. 
71, 8th line, gravel, for calculic, read calculi. 
75, 2d line, for miasmelic, read miasmatic. 

79, 16th line from bottom, for venal read 
renal. 

80, 5ih line from bottom, for mercurial, read 
maniacal. 

90, 4th line from bottom, for feecoids, read 
fucoides. 

91, 5th line from top, for silix, read silex. 
104, note, read 57 feet above Chapman's hill. 
109, for increase Hoyt, read Increase Hoyt. 



mmm 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 224 366 



ill I 




